It has been around two months since the infamous data breach happened where the social security numbers of 63,000 both current and former UCF employees, student athletes, and student government officials were hacked.
“After UCF discovered the unauthorized access in January, university officials immediately reported the incident to law enforcement and launched an internal investigation with the assistance of a national digital forensics firm,” according to a UCF press release.
Knight News made a public records request immediately after for the contract UCF made with the national digital forensics firm hoping to see how much UCF was spending per hour to fix this problem.
By doing this Knight News would be able to calculate how much of student taxpayer money this data hack cost UCF.
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 this evening.
The one thing Knight News was after, the hourly cost rate, was redacted in the contract. UCF says that the rate should be redacted under Florida Statute Chapter 812 Section 081, Florida’s trade secret exemption, and claimed that the hourly rate is a trade secret.
Knight News was quick to object to this redaction and said that the hourly rate does not qualify as a trade secret.
The definition of trade secret is provided below, according to the 2015 Florida State Statutes.
“Trade secret” means the whole or any portion or phase of any formula, pattern, device, combination of devices, or compilation of information which is for use, or is used, in the operation of a business and which provides the business an advantage, or an opportunity to obtain an advantage, over those who do not know or use it. “Trade secret” includes any scientific, technical, or commercial information, including any design, process, procedure, list of suppliers, list of customers, business code, or improvement thereof. Irrespective of novelty, invention, patentability, the state of the prior art, and the level of skill in the business, art, or field to which the subject matter pertains, a trade secret is considered to be:
1. Secret;
2. Of value;
3. For use or in use by the business; and
4. Of advantage to the business, or providing an opportunity to obtain an advantage, over those who do not know or use it
Knight News believes that UCF is misinterpreting this law in order to hide the amount of student taxpayer money that was spent on this project, much how they believe UCF misinterprets FERPA when it comes to redacting UCF student government records.
Knight News says that the public has a right to know how much UCF spent on this project and that no hourly rates should be protected under trade secret exemption of the Florida State Statutes.
Knight News will continue to fight for transparency for the public.
Check back to Knight News for updates on this story.
