Suffolk cyberattack: Lawmakers give subpoena power to investigative panel 

Suffolk County legislators voted Tuesday to grant subpoena power to a bipartisan panel created to investigate the source of the Sept. 8 cyberattack on county government.

The legislature last month announced creation of a panel to investigate the source of the hack that led to the theft of county data and shut down some county functions for more than two months.

A procedural resolution on Tuesday’s general meeting agenda granted committee members the power to administer oaths and affirmations and compel the production of books, papers and witnesses related to the investigation. The measure passed 18-0.

Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holbrook), chairman of the government operations and information technology committee, will head the panel on which legislative Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) also will sit. No other members have been announced, but they are expected to include legislators from both parties.

The committee's mission is to determine the source of the breach and the circumstances that led to it, lawmakers have said.

Some members of the legislature have expressed concern that witnesses would not provide information or documents without a subpoena compelling them to testify, according to the resolution.

“I want to just reiterate, for the record, this is not a political witch hunt,” Piccirillo told Newsday on Tuesday. “This is a fact-finding mission. And we need these powers to make sure that we can have a thorough and fair investigation.”

The committee will be allowed to issue subpoenas with the approval of a majority of panel members, according to the resolution.

The resolution does not require the signature of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Piccirillo said. 

Marykate Guilfoyle, a spokeswoman for Bellone, said Tuesday the administration supports "the special committee and will continue to work closely with our partners in the legislature to fully recover from the cyberattack and harden our infrastructure.”

Piccirillo said the committee’s other members and its outside counsel would be announced at the next legislative meeting, scheduled for Dec. 6.

Officials have not specified when the committee would begin meeting or when it would issue a final report.

McCaffrey has said the panel's work would not interfere with law enforcement investigations into the attack or restoration of county computer services.

The county immediately took its web-based systems offline after discovering the attack and has since begun a rolling restoration of services such as title searches, and many employees’ access to emails has since been restored.

An unidentified group has taken responsibility for the cyberattack in a posting on the "dark web," an anonymized portion of the internet where criminal activity can occur.

The group has released copies of some Suffolk County documents, saying it was seeking a “small reward” for revealing vulnerabilities in Suffolk's computer systems.

County officials have not said if the group has demanded a specific ransom to restore and return the data.

Also Tuesday, the legislature voted 18-0 to approve a $91 million settlement reached with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA for its role in contributing to the opioid epidemic.

State Attorney General Letitia James this month announced New York would receive $523 million as the result of two settlements with the opioid maker that also resolved separate cases filed by Nassau and Suffolk counties.

A Suffolk County jury found Teva liable in December 2021 following a six-month landmark trial, but a separate trial would have been required to determine how much money the company would be liable for.

The money, which will be paid out over 18 years, can be used for drug treatment and abatement, according to the agreement. McCaffrey said an announcement could be made next week detailing how the money will be spent.

"This legislature many, many years ago … took the stance that we need to make sure these companies are held accountable for not only polluting our water bodies, but polluting the bodies of our residents," Legis. Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon), the legislature's minority leader, said during the meeting. "I think it's important that we use these funds to help our communities."

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.