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Why was ITD using a computer script that may have breached ACHD's security?

The Excel spreadsheet was meant as a solution to track data discrepancies the department had noticed years earlier.
A crew paves a section of Interstate 84.

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho Transportation Department computer script — which may have breached the Ada County Highway District’s internal servers’ security through an Excel spreadsheet — was meant as a solution to track data discrepancies the department had noticed years earlier.

Both the department and the highway district used the spreadsheet in question. It was a place for private contractors to record data about quality assurance tests conducted on asphalt for certain projects. The department used that data in determining how to pay the contractors, according to Vincent Trimboli, ITD spokesman.

The Idaho Transportation Department also conducted its own quality assurance tests on the asphalt, but until recently, the department paid contractors based on the contractors’ own test results.

In 2016, department officials started to notice “unexpected variations” between the test results from some contractors, and the department’s test results.

“These observations were primarily related to aggregates, oil, and the related components used for asphalt paving on the roadways,” according to an April report by the department to the governor’s office.

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By fall 2017, the department had become “increasingly concerned” about the difference in the data. Department officials asked for help from the Federal Highway Administration, whose analysis of the data found the discrepancies to be a problem.

Highway administration officials presented their findings to a “combined meeting of the ITD leaders and members of the Idaho Associated General Contractors,” according to the April report.

Because ITD was using federal dollars in at least some of the projects in question, in 2018 it turned over the data to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.

“When related to federal funds, it is normal for the OIG to investigate how those funds are spent,” according to the department’s report to the governor’s office. “The OIG is currently conducting an investigation, and ITD is fully cooperating with that investigation.”

In search of a solution, ITD employees developed a script to analyze the data put into the spreadsheets, Trimboli confirmed Thursday to the Idaho Press. The goal was to root out those discrepancies in data. The script was used during the 2018 construction season, he said.

The problem, though, was that ACHD didn’t know about the department’s use of a script on a spreadsheet both agencies used, Steven Price, the district’s general council, said at a meeting Wednesday. Price was concerned the department may have breached the district’s security. The script is no longer in use, Price told highway district commissioners.

The spreadsheets won’t be in use this upcoming construction season, according to an update ITD provided to the governor in December. In fact, the department has changed multiple policies governing asphalt quality assurance data. For instance, the department will no longer pays contractors based on the contractors’ own test results — the state pays based on its own results.

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“Contractors still perform quality control testing and have the opportunity to dispute the Department’s test results,” according to the December update.

Instead of using spreadsheets, the department will require contractors to use a web portal to submit test results. The update listed six major changes in department policy.

“Collectively, these changes are a major step in improving our asphalt pavement,” according to the update. “We will monitor and review the success of these initial changes and will work with our industry partners on future refinements as needed.”

Trimboli said as far as he knows, the inspector general’s investigation of the discrepancy in the data is still ongoing. ACHD has hired a consultant to examine the potential breach of security.

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