State employees didn’t use emergency-operations-center computers to buy Rockies World Series tickets or to view pornography, but auditors announced Monday that the equipment has been used to access 341 other websites equally unrelated to work since 2004.
A flap last year over a director-sanctioned proposal to use 30 computers normally designated for emergency training or response to instead buy the baseball tickets prompted the audit.
The illicit surfers got off with a warning, and the Department of Local Affairs, after the 2007 scrutiny, installed software to block some questionable websites throughout the department, though access to gambling, shopping, stock trading and travel pages still is allowed.
Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton, who requested the audit last year, said the results should put employees at other state agencies on notice.
“It’s a public-trust issue,” Kerr said. “Now they’re on alert because these guys got spanked a little bit.”
The State Emergency Operations Center coordinates response efforts of state and local agencies as well as volunteer efforts in case of disaster. The space is more frequently used as a training ground than for actual emergencies.
Computer users in the center and departmentwide can no longer access dating, social-networking, gruesome, hateful or pornographic websites, thanks to the recent filter.
Department of Local Affairs Director Susan Kirkpatrick, who OK’d the Rockies ticket buy before she later rescinded permission, said that some employees may need access to gambling websites because the department administers some state revenue from casinos to local communities.
A spokeswoman had similar job-related reasons for other exceptions.
The audit also recommended further security precautions for the department, such as requiring employees to have individual, eight-character computer passwords that change every two months.
Other suggestions include preventing users from disabling scans for computer viruses, strengthening the department’s ability to track use and reviewing state-computer-use policies with employees annually. The state forbids employees to visit sites unrelated to work.
All four recommendations were put in place as of Monday, according to department staff.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
