DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court has apologized to a legislative committee investigating the break-ins at courthouses and the court system’s own state-owned building as part of a cybersecurity vulnerability test.

Speaking Friday to the Senate Government Oversight Committee, Mark Cady acknowledged mistakes as the judicial branch worked to protect confidential information and promised they wouldn’t happen again.
Senators criticized several judicial branch administrators for signing contracts with a cybersecurity company without properly vetting them for inconsistencies or errors.

Information technology employees say they believe the men who burglarized the court buildings acted outside the scope of the contract. Two employees of the company Coalfire broke into the Dallas County Courthouse overnight Sept. 11 and were arrested. Both face criminal charges. Officials later found they also had entered undetected into the Polk County Courthouse and the state judicial branch building housing the Iowa Supreme Court.

Sen. Tony Bisignano called it a “covert stupid operation” that put law enforcement officers and the men involved in the break-ins at risk.