Did COVID Data Whistleblower Hack Florida’s Emergency Alert System? Police Raid Home

FriendlySolipsist writes: Independent journalist Rebekah Jones, a scientist fired by the Florida state government because, she said, of her refusal to manipulate official COVID-19 data releases to coincide with political considerations and who now operates website floridacovidaction.com, had her home raided by the FL state police who seized computers and cellphones, the Miami Herald reported. The FDLE affidavit in support of the raid was published by the Miami Herald and asserts that an unauthorized internal message was sent to the “ReadyOps” system within the state Department of Health from an IPv6 address associated with the Comcast account at Jones residence. “The Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Monday raided the home of a former Department of Health data analyst who has been running an alternative web site to the state’s COVID dashboard, alleging that she may have broken into a state email system and sent an unauthorized message to employees,” reports the Miami Herald. “But Rebekah Jones, who was was fired from her job in May as the geographic information system manager for DOH’s Division of Disease Control and Health Protection and who has since filed a whistleblower complaint against the state, denied having any role in the alleged intrusion into the state web site and instead said she believes Monday’s action was intended to silence her.” Slashdot reader mtrachtenberg shares a thread on Twitter of Jones describing what happened.