Grant Gross reports:
A former employee at the U.S. Department of State was sentenced to 12 months of probation Friday for illegally accessing more than 75 confidential passport application files, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
William Celey, 28, of Washington, D.C., was also ordered to perform 50 hours of community service by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On July 10, Celey pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging him with unauthorized computer access.
Celey, who worked as a file assistant for the State Department from August 2003 to July 2004, had access to the agency’s computer databases, including the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS). That database contains imaged passport applications dating back to 1994.
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