Police Safety Not Compromised by Virus on Home PC, Mayor Says

Macungie Mayor Rick Hoffman had a short answer to the question “Did Computer Virus Risk Safety of Macungie Police?” raised earlier in the week by Macungie business owner Tim Romig in front of Macungie Borough Council.

“No.”

Hoffman called Patch on Thursday after reading a Patch article summarizing the concerns raised by Romig about the email virus on the mayor's PC, which Romig documented using printouts of an email exchange between Hoffman and Macungie Police Chief Ed Harry. In those exchanges, which Romig obtained through a right to know request, Harry told the mayor about the virus and suggested he try to get it taken care of.

Even if his computer did have an email virus, Hoffman explained, there is no way a virus in his email could put the data in the GPS system in harm’s way.

“I don’t even keep the password and login on the computer,” Hoffman said.

Plus, Hoffman said, the GPS software is proprietary and if someone wanted to hack the information in the GPS system, they would need to purchase that software.

When asked whether the GPS software actually resides on his computer or runs on a computer at another location that his PC is accessing remotely, Hoffman wasn’t 100 percent sure. “I think so,” he said. “I did have to download a bunch of stuff to my computer in the beginning.”