A volunteer at the Palm Beach County elections office was arrested Saturday for stealing an encrypted access key from a voter registration terminal, authorities said.
John Panicci, of Lake Worth Beach, was taken into custody by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office after detectives executed a search warrant at his home.
It was during a training session on March 19 at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, he allegedly stole the access key, according to a news release from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
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“While the key was configured solely for training databases, there was concern that a knowledgeable individual could potentially reverse engineer the encryption and reintroduce it into a voter registration kiosk for malicious purposes,” the news release stated.
Detectives found the stolen items and various electronic and digital storage devices in Panicci’s home, the news release said.
Panicci was taken to jail and booked on theft charges.
