Franklin Town MA
10-30-2026 4:32am
LETTER: Register of Deeds Flags Cybersecurity Failures in County
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UNSOUND NORFOLK COUNTY GOVERNMENT CYBER SECURITY DECISIONS
…..October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an annual initiative launched in 2004 by the National Cyber Security Alliance and the United States Security Alliance and the United States Department of Homeland Security.
…..There has been a lack of commitment by elected and appointed Norfolk County Officials to cybersecurity and the operations of Norfolk County Registry of Deeds. Some of this may have been driven by the retaliation from the Norfolk County Director John J. Cronin who does not even live in Norfolk County as well as the Norfolk County Commissioners for losing in various court cases brought by me as Register of Deeds. Here is a video on the latest failure of the County Information Technology Department and its supervisor County Director John J. Cronin short clip of cable TV interview 10-14-2026.
…..In one of those lawsuits the court ruled that the Norfolk County Commissioners exceeded their statutory authority in not implementing the Register’s appointment of the Registry Chief Information Officer.
…..Lawsuits aside there have been poor policy decisions and actions that have negatively impacted cybersecurity and Registry operations.
Breach of the County Information Technology infrastructure on October 27, 2024 that required the County to notify all employees and/or retirees.
Elimination of a one hundred percent dedicated to the Registry of Deeds Disaster Recovery Office located in Dedham since 2011 at the urging of County Director John J. Cronin and the vote of the Norfolk County Commissioners.
Closing of the Registry Disaster Recovery office in Dedham without securing a Certificate of Compliance from the Town of Walpole to occupy and operate a County Information Technology office in an outdated former school smoking lounge.
Receipt of an October 6, 2025 proposal by Deputy Chief Information Officer Dan Caparrotta to upgrade the IBM Server as required by IBM and then doing nothing with that proposal. This inaction by the County Information Technology Department supervised by County Director John J. Cronin led the IBM Server to be put in an end of service status without cybersecurity patching support by IBM effective January 31, 2026. This occurred despite the County Information Technology Department receiving notices from IBM of this January 31, 2026 end of service date going back to 2024.
Wasting Taxpayer dollars. Deputy Chief Information Officer Dan Caparrotta received a cost quote dated October 6, 2025 of $184,619.93 to get the IBM Server upgrade work done. The County Information Technology staff and County Director John J. Cronin’s inaction is another example of wasteful Norfolk County general government spending which has cost the taxpayers at least an additional $125,648.07 just on this poor decision alone. The price of inaction is that a recent 2026 price quote shows the IBM upgrade cost has grown to $310,268.00.
…..Never in the history of the Registry of Deeds has the IBM Server been put in an “end of service status” when there was an on-site direct report to the Register of Deeds Registry Information Technology Department and/or Registry Chief Information Officer.
…..Attached is an article that appeared in the respected publication State House News about the Information Technology failures of the Norfolk County general government SHN-A-Warning-Foretold.pdf This story has also been published in a number of other local media outlets including the Dedham Times Dedham-Times-Registry-Operations-and-Services-Jeopardized.pdf. It is unfortunate that these challenges have been going on since 2022. Aug-2022-Consolidated-County-Information-and-Technology-Letter.pdf I can only hope these Norfolk County elected and appointed officials start making better decisions.
…..The millions of legal land court documents at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds and the legal titles to owned property are jeopardized by poor decisions made by Norfolk County elected and appointed officials. I would not be doing my fiduciary duty as your Register of Deeds if I did not stand up and shine the light on what is taking place.
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