Capitol Hill employees who confidentially made courtly complaints about intimate molestation and other workplace infringement were left expose , potentially for years , by the very post charged with deal their complaints .
The Office of Compliance ( OOC ) improperly stored — on a third - company waiter that lacked canonical security measures — raw files related to claim of intimate molestation and favouritism , according to congressional commensurateness obtained by Gizmodo .
After acknowledging that the server was vulnerable in December , the OOC engage no action to secure the single file for more than two calendar month .
The theft of such sensible entropy would not only threaten the legislative branch employees who filed the complaints , leaving them vulnerable to revenge and further ill-treatment , it also poses a significant peril to interior security .
“ We have here a highly attractive mark for any bad thespian — be it politically motivated inside the United States , or indeed a foreign intelligence authority — that would allow an adversary to put politician under pressure level , in camera or in public , ” said Thomas Rid , professor of strategical written report at Johns Hopkins University .
The OOC , which is charged with handling work - violation claims pursuant to the Congressional Accountability Act , failed to take introductory step to protect “ deeply raw data ” provided by Capitol Hill staff “ who have experienced intimate harassment and other workplace abuse , ” according to a February 23rd letter signed by Sen. Ron Wyden , Democrat of Oregon .
As first report byThe Washington Post , OCC expose the host ’s event to Wyden during a December 14th coming together , concord to the letter , which was handle to OOC president Barbara Childs Wallace , an lawyer at the Mississippi - based constabulary firm Wise Carter Child & Caraway . During the confluence , Wyden learned that the server , operated by a third - party contractor , had never undergone a cybersecurity audited account .
The OOC is presently extend by Executive Director Susan Tsui Grundmann , former chairperson of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board .
“ My stave also learned that the OOC has fail to take even the most basic steps to protect the deeply sensitive information trust to it by legislative branch employees who have experienced sexual molestation and other workplace ill-usage , ” write Wyden .
“ Moreover , the OOC has never hired anyone to focalise on cybersecurity , nor does the OOC presently utilize a full - fourth dimension system administrator , ” Wyden continued , adding : “ OOC ’s failure to take these basic footstep leaves current and former congressional employee needlessly vulnerable to the possibility of having aspect of their lives break that they may or may not choose to unwrap on their own . ”
Four days after OOC received the letter of the alphabet , the host was select offline . It was then moved to a strong , congressional facility and put back on-line March 27th , according to a 2nd Wyden alphabetic character , sent to OOC this week . The server is no longer connected to internet , it says .
A Wyden aide tell Gizmodo that travel along the December coming together , the Senator urged congressional leaders , include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , to pressure OOC into securing the data . But Wyden ’s business organisation fall on indifferent ears , the aide said .
“ Congressional staff already face tremendous risk in come forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault , ” Kristin Nicholson , conductor of the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University , told Gizmodo . “ It ’s steep that Congress would allow the profoundly sensitive information these staffers have shared to be placed at danger as well . ”
Nicholson , who thanked Wyden for pursuing the event , aver she hop that OOC and other congressional offices would be more vigilant in the future .
Gizmodo contacted OOC on Friday and ask whether the dupe of harassment would be give notice individually about the lack of security surround their ill . OOC did not answer to multiple request for gossip .
Sexual Harassment
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