A new report faults Northrop Grumman for losing data and failing to quickly restore service after a server failure last August crippled computer systems at Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles and 25 other agencies.
The audit, released Tuesday, was conducted by Agilysys and paid for by Northrop but was overseen by Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration and the Virginia General Assembly’s investigative arm.
The failure of a key data storage system and human error during the repair caused the original outage, the report said.
But failures to properly copy data led to loss of data and delays in restoring operations, it said.
McDonnell has directed Technology Secretary Jim Duffey to accelerate discussions with Northrop Grumman executives on compensation for the state and corrective actions to be taken.
Northrop has been working since the outage to make appropriate improvements and is “ready to engage in discussions with the commonwealth about how the report recommendations could best be implemented,” said Christy Whitman, a company spokeswoman.
