Man accused of stealing sensitive computer key at Palm Beach County election training

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A Palm Beach County election volunteer allegedly stole an encrypted entry key throughout a training session, sparking a prison investigation.

Detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office say they responded to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office at 4301 Cherry Road for studies of sensitive computer gear being stolen.

A subsequent investigation uncovered that theft occurred days earlier, on March 19, whereas the Elections Office was conducting a training session for volunteers helping with the upcoming election.

At the training session, detectives say the suspect, John Panicci, took an encrypted entry key from a voter registration terminal.

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While officers say the key was configured just for training databases, authorities famous issues that somebody with technical experience might reverse-engineer the encryption and use it in a dwell voter registration kiosk for malicious functions.

After figuring out Panicci because the suspect, detectives established possible trigger and secured each an arrest warrant and a search warrant for his residence.

On March 28, detectives executed the search warrant at Panicci’s residence, the place he was situated and brought into custody with out incident. During the search, investigators say they recovered the stolen key together with a big quantity of digital and digital storage gadgets.

Panicci was transported to the Palm Beach County Jail, the place he was booked on accounts of theft and taking, and damaging an digital system. He is anticipated to make his first court docket look on Sunday morning.

Authorities haven’t mentioned whether or not any voter information was compromised, however emphasize that the investigation stays ongoing.