Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones was unable to provide updates to her COVID-19 website after police confiscated her computer during a home raid over allegations she hacked into the Florida health department website, according to a report in The Washington Post.
Four details:
1. Ms. Jones worked for the Florida health department until May when she claimed the department fired her for refusing to manipulate data on the state's COVID-19 dashboard. Since then, she created a separate COVID-19 data dashboard and raised concerns about the Florida health department's data.
2. In November, Florida emergency personnel received an email encouraging them to speak out about COVID-19-related deaths, and law enforcement officials allege Ms. Jones hacked into the Florida health department's website to send the message. Ms. Jones denies the allegations.
3. Law enforcement took Ms. Jones' computer, phone and other hardware supporting her COVID-19 data dashboard during the raid.
4. Ms. Jones tweeted that she plans to acquire a new computer and "get back to work."