The University of Central Florida backed down after Knight News decided it was going to sue over UCF’s controversial decision to redact the hourly rate from the digital forensics firm contract.
Immediately after UCF had notified the public of the data hack, nearly one month after it actually occurred, Knight News made a public records request for the contract between UCF and the national digital forensics firm they were paying for with student taxpayer money to fix the problem.
After an unreasonable delay in time passed since Knight News requested the public record, and one business day after Knight News informed UCF it was filing a new open government lawsuit, Knight News finally received the record from UCF spokesman Chad Binette Monday night.
Knight News was quick to notice that the hourly rate UCF was paying the firm to work was redacted from the contract. Knight News immediately asked UCF why this information was being redacted and was told that it was a “trade secret” by UCF.
Knight News objected to this redaction saying the that the hourly rate should not be covered under the trade secret exemption.
After Knight News published a story late Monday night letting the public know that UCF was not allowing them to see how much of their money was being spent on fixing the data breach, UCF was quick to send a copy of the contract that was not redacted.
Come to find out UCF is paying $325 of student taxpayer money an hour to the digital forensics firm to fix the issue. UCF spokesman Chad Binette said the costs are covered by UCF’s cybersecurity insurance.
Knight News is working to find out if this is going increase the insurance fees for students.
