Anti-hacking measures

Just smashing:

Employees at the obscure Economic Development Administration took a hammer to their computers, keyboards and mice in an effort to destroy all of the agency’s tech-related hardware after incorrectly believing their network had been hacked.

Not only was the reaction unorthodox and unnecessary, it cost $2.7 million in damages -- more than half the agency’s annual technology budget, according to a recently released inspector general report.

The scathing audit also reveals that employees and contractors hired by the agency, which operates under the Commerce Department, repeatedly broke protocol and embarked on a series of bizarre blunders based on faulty information. Among them was the apparent assumption that a computer mouse can carry a virus.

It's all good, though. They weren't using them anyway...

An EDA spokesperson [said] that the IT disruptions did not affect the agency’s work.

"Work" being a relative term in this case.


___
Hat-tip to Rusty C.