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BEAUFORT, S.C. – Nearly a year has passed since a couple’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request inadvertently resulted in the largest data leak in Beaufort’s history. This incident, involving the release of over 9,000 unredacted documents, has prompted an extensive investigation that remains active.
On Wednesday, an update on the investigation’s progress was provided. Beaufort city councilman Josh Scallate confirmed that the inquiry is still underway, though specific details remain under wraps due to its sensitive nature.
Scallate shared insights into the steps taken since the investigation commenced in September 2025. “On September 19, the investigative firm arrived to conduct interviews with staff members and myself to better understand the events that transpired,” he explained. “Since then, we’ve received occasional updates during executive sessions, highlighting their progress.”
The latest briefing to the city council occurred on January 27. The external firm handling the investigation reported that they are nearing the completion of cataloging the 9,000 files involved in the breach. Once this inventory stage concludes, Scallate indicated that the investigation could advance to its next phase.
The most recent update city council got was on Jan. 27. The outside firm hired to investigate the FOIA breach notified council they were almost to a point of being able to complete the inventory of 9,000 files. Once that is done, Scallate said things can move forward.
“We’re very optimistic that in the near future we’ll be able to notify all of the parties whose information was compromised,” said Scallate.
The city originally tried to take charge in notifying parties whose information was released during their own internal investigation but the outside firm took over.
According to previous conversations with the Hollises, the couple who received the 9,000 files, several unredacted minors’ forensic interviews were included in the breach, including their daughter’s.
They also had uncensored access to several arrest warrants, the city’s budget and invoices, medical records and attorney client privilege between the city and its council.
As for what other personal information is included in those files, it is still unknown.
“Aside from what’s been publicly released, I’m not sure of the specific contents in the FOIA request. It was a very large amount of files and emails and communications back and forth and attachments. But to the full extent of what that actually is, we’re not sure,” said Scallate.
The initial investigation conducted by the city found that a software error led to the leak. Officials previously told that the error occurred during the upload process, which then unredacted the files.
“Originally the thought was that there was a glitch in the software, and to some extent, that probably did not help,” Scallate said.
But Scallate said he believes another factor in the breach could be improper training for employees assigned to open record requests.
“We need more training in regard to how these FOIA’s are fulfilled,” he said. “You need staff that is properly trained to fulfill the FOIA request the way that it’s submitted. And I think that is another area that we can do better.”
was informed the city has updated their software since the breach. They also incorporated a risk management position to try and prevent a similar situation from happening again.
“The thought is, is that that would help with a couple of things, not just the retained retention of files in the organization but managing any risk that may come. So that is something that we’re factoring into the budget,” Scallate said.
The city also recently introduced a fee schedule for open record request searches. Requests will be charged by the amount of time it takes for employees to fulfill open-record requests.
“We were the only ones that, to my knowledge, that didn’t have one in place,” Scallate said. “I think a fee schedule is appropriate because you do have staff members who are having to fulfill that.”
Scallate said even with the fee schedule, they want to make sure they’re fulfilling FOIA requests appropriately and that they have all the safety mechanisms in place to prevent release of unredacted information.
“I don’t think that that safety mechanism would have been relevant to the FOIA that we’re discussing here. But at any rate, it is one of those safeguards that would, you know, help cover the cost, but also be an alarm that says, ‘Okay, well, maybe we can filter this down a little bit.’”
Scallate said the city is taking the investigation very seriously. He said he does not have a timeline for when the ongoing investigation would be concluded.
“I think that everybody wishes that this would have come to a conclusion at this point and it is taking longer than any of us had hoped,” he said. “I don’t have any answers. But we’re hopeful that within the next couple of weeks we’ll get notifications out. That is what we’re being told but I don’t know exactly when that’s going to be.”