Cyberattack halts use of New York public watchdog agency

Databases maintained by New York’s public watchdog agency remain down after state information technology officials learned its web servers were targeted in “a deliberate malicious cyberattack.”

Last Friday evening, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced that servers hosting such systems as its lobbyist financial disclosure statements had been shut down days prior after the New York Office of Information Technology Services received a suspicious activity alert.

At that time, JCOPE said the systems would remain down until they could resume normal operations safely. Agency officials said they did not have any suspects regarding who was responsible for the attack. However, they plan to work with state law enforcement officials to investigate the incident.

“Our first and highest priority is the safety and integrity of the data entrusted to the Commission by the regulated community,” said JCOPE Executive Director Sanford Berland in a statement.

The outage keeps the public from accessing data about lobbyist expenditures and keeps lobbyists from submitting their required records. JCOPE said it would grant automatic extensions to anyone who missed a deadline because of the outage, with the length of the extension to be determined when systems were again running.

Walter McClure, a JCOPE spokesperson, told The Center Square in an email that the outage also affects searches using the agency’s legacy lobbyist filing system, which was in use until 2019.

The cyberattack is the latest blemish for an agency that has endured criticism from state lawmakers and external watchdogs.

One of the issues has been how members of the agency have been appointed by legislative and executive leaders, with concerns that political leaders may exert too much influence over their appointments.

In one such instance, a former JCOPE commissioner said Gov. Cuomo learned of her confidential vote against a former aide. That triggered a request for the attorney general’s office to investigate the matter.

Others have criticized arcane rules that led to referrals for investigations being rejected.

State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, the Bronx Democrat who chairs the Senate Ethics Committee, has called for a constitutional amendment to establish a new agency. In January, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul used her first State of the State speech to call for a completely independent public ethics agency to assume the agency’s responsibilities.