Cradle of liberties
@ AC and Tim
i lived in PA for 25+ years, worked on contract for the city of Philadelphia, and later a suburban county; also dealt with state (i'm systems support).
don't know which PA these two are talking about, but i can say that the level of waste, corruption and incompetence i witnessed, was worthy of Louisiana (or so its reputation indicates). Philadelphia is, very quietly, one of the most corrupt cities in the nation. it is also one of the oldest, so that fits.
you think this person could notify the local government? are you joking? local government systems support people are mostly overworked, underpaid, disgruntled, burned-out, apathetic and cynical. many are also passive-aggressive, and completely unqualified for their jobs, so this security issue is no surprise at all.
additionally, the contact information for systems support is unavailable to most of the local government workers (they have to go up one or more levels in their chain of command, their boss or boss's boss has to call for them), let alone the public. last, and certainly not least, gov systems workers are highly likely to ignore a problem unless and until it reaches public crisis status.
be serious. this person did the only rationally useful thing, and posted the information where it would humiliate senior officials, which is the ONLY way to get most of them to act quickly (or indeed, at all).
kudos for the bravery. personally, i would have acted through a third party, preferably a security firm by way of thereg, for example. i like to avoid having my identity tied to this sort of thing, for fear of retaliation.