Missouri state government wrestles with massive computer shortcomings | Politics

“In light of the events that have transpired this week, I believe the governor cannot wait any longer to appoint members to this commission so it may do the critical work of identifying and rectifying gaps in Missouri’s cyberinfrastructure,” Aune said Friday.

Aune said the governor’s reaction to the Post-Dispatch’s story was a “fiasco.”

“Let’s get down to brass tacks: The Parson administration stored the sensitive, private, personally identifiable information of nearly 100,000 Missouri teachers on a public website, and it could easily be accessed by anyone with even a basic knowledge of the internet. That’s a terrifying fact,” Aune said.

“If we want to stop actual threats to our online infrastructure, the governor should start appointing members to this commission now,” Aune said.

Missouri’s computer woes also affected the launch of the state’s expanded Medicaid program. After being forced to begin the long-sought program via a lawsuit, officials at the Department of Social Services said it would take two months to program their computers to allow for an additional 275,000 low-income Missourians to get enrolled.

The problems don’t stop there.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the Department of Health and Senior Services had to replace a clunky, two-decade-old homemade computer system it used for tracking disease outbreaks.