Protecting Public Data and Trust with Azure Security and Microsoft Entra – A State DOJ Case
On June 27, 2022 - California Department of Justice launched a new Firearms Dashboard Portal with altruistic intentions to “improve transparency and information sharing for firearms-related data” and “balance its duties to provide gun violence and firearms data to support research efforts while protecting the personal identifying information in the data the Department collects and maintains”. Fast forward less than 30 days, the Attorney General’s office is now being sued by two different parties, a national non-profit on July 1 and a group of four CA citizens on July 18 respectively. Both lawsuits are predicated on the assumption that the bold text was not upheld. The CA DOJ and the CA Attorney General are not alone in facing the three pressures that incited this particular incident. Citizens want greater transparency when it comes to community health data, criminal activity, and other politically impacted domains like firearm ownership. This data comes in many forms (databases, video footage, internal reports/memos, court documents, etc.) and resides on a broad array of digital locations. This data is of special interest to hackers looking to leverage Personal Identifiable Information (PII) for financial gain OR hacktivists desiring to expose a particular truth or perceived truth by leaking the information to the broader public.
