IF YOU THINK IT CAN'T HAPPEN, THINK AGAIN...OR, HAVEN'T THEY HEARD OF AN ALARM SYSTEM!?!?

This is not a local story, but let it be a lesson to all business or government entities:

In my hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, it seems that either late Thursday or early Friday, two unidentified men broke a window on the southeast side of the City Hall building and gained access to it's basement level. The Hattiesburg American reports that they then shattered the door of the Information Technology department, stealing more than $150,000 of computer equipment. That includes four servers which contained personal information of at least 23,000 city residents and employees.

Hattiesburg, the fourth largest city in the Magnolia State, has a population of nearly 50,000.

In addition to containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal data, the servers were a central hub for all the city's electronic information, including e-mails, contractor information and other data.
"It's the brain of the city of Hattiesburg," city spokesman John Brown said.

The computer servers stored information on about 23,000 registered voters, all city personnel since 2000, about 16,000 utilities customers and numerous contractors who did work for the city.

The approximately 375 employees on direct deposit and 1,000 utility customers with bank draft payments, however, have the most to lose if the thieves gain access to their bank information.

Police Chief David Wynn says the crime was apparantly well thought out and professional in nature. The perps were caught on videotape, which is being analyzed by the FBI and an investigator with the Lamar County Sheriff's Office (Hattiesburg is located primarily within Forrest County, but western areas of the city are in neighbouoring Lamar County as well).

City Hall was closed Friday as police were investigating the break-in and so that backup copies of the stolen information could be downloaded to other servers.