Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved filing a claim with the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust to investigate a report of county data being stored offsite by a former county IT employee.

Freeborn County Attorney David Walker said the county recently received a request for reimbursement for county data that had been backed up for 15 years at the former employee’s home.

Walker said this could have included anything stored on county computers.

Second District Commissioner Dawn Kaasa said after the request was made, she contacted the Association of Minnesota Counties to ask if anything should be done and if there was anything unusual about this data practice.

The county has backups of data in the event something happens to the courthouse. Kaasa said the recommendation is to have backup data at least seven miles away from the main storage at the courthouse in the event of a power outage, fire or natural disaster.

Kaasa said the person she contacted at the Association of Minnesota Counties told her she was not overreacting and to not pay the request for reimbursement without first looking into the issue further.

County staff have been unable thus far to find a written contract regarding the storage of data or the payment.

“The whole situation is very troubling and needs to be addressed by people smarter and (more) impartial than us,” Kaasa said.

Contacts at MCIT concurred and recommended investigating the situation further, Kaasa said. The county would not have to pay anything for the investigation as the cost would be covered by its membership in the organization.

Walker said the investigation would ask questions to find out who knew about the situation, what was taking place and whether it was allowable.

Kaasa, who motioned to follow MCIT’s recommendations, said the claim would also approve forensic investigators looking at whether the data was breached in any way, including whether the information had been “forwarded, copied, opened — everything.” The organization’s breach lawyers would also be able to tell the county if anyone officially needs to be notified of the situation.

“I just think going forward we need to make sure that we have done everything we can to protect the residents of the county,” she said.

She said the actions had reportedly been happening for 15 years, and former administrators had known it was going on since 2009.

Board Chairman John Forman said the hope would be that the claim is investigated and MCIT finds nothing wrong.

“That way we can assure the county citizens that their data has not been breached in any shape or form,” Forman said.

The data in question has been returned to the county, and the board began discussions about where the backup offsite data storage will be and how it will be secured.

Board action Tuesday was necessary in the absence of an administrator at that time.