Boonville Chamber claims computer was hacked; local tech business says otherwise

BOONVILLE- A whole new swath of developments has surfaced regarding the Boonville Area Chamber of Commerce.

First of all, the chamber announced earlier this month that their computer was hacked, but results from a local computer service business seem to suggest otherwise.

The declaration was made on their Facebook page two-days prior to what was supposed to be their annual meeting, which was postponed. It appears now that the post has since been taken down.

Original chamber post, which no longer appears in their post feed.

Two-days before the chamber declared their computer was hacked, board officials had it serviced and inspected by Muha Computer Repair, a local business out of Boonville, NY and owned by Chris Muha.

This can be confirmed via a series of public release letters issued by Muha and his company, which reveal the findings. Read the letters below:

In the letters, Muha makes it clear that the chamber computer was never hacked, but rather the chamber assumed so amidst all of the scams and other malicious digital activity in our world today.

It’s known now that the chamber has endured problems before with managing passwords for various electronic accounts, such as email. 

According to Muha, the basis of these letters revolve around the chamber's password troubles and their former Director of Communications, Joshua Fitzgerald, who resigned in late January - citing a lack of transparency, including finances, illegitimate Elections and numerous Facebook altercations and hostilities towards members and the general public.

In the letters, it's revealed the chamber alleged to Muha that they directly confronted Fitzgerald in the wake of his resignation, demanding he turnover all login information for their email, Facebook and cameras and, but did not receive compliance in return.

However, Fitzgerald has since responded on social media by saying that is not the case. Further details from Muha's letters support Fitzgerald's response.  

"He sent me text message proof that he removed himself as an admin from the chamber Facebook page," Muha's letter reads. Those texts have since been released publically on social media by Muha's company: 

Text message screenshots between Fitzgerald and the chamber, provided and released publically by Muha Computer Repair.     

"These are pictures to prove that The Chamber knows what they are doing with passwords, MFA, and ultimately, how to get into their accounts," Muha claimed in an update Monday.

"The pictures show that The Chamber was able to access one of their old emails and acknowledged that they were able to get into their Facebook after Mr. Josh Fitzgerald from Lake Effect Tech removed himself as an admin from their page." 

The info@boonvilleareachamber email was created November 21, 2022. According to Muha's investigation, the password change was as of 18-days prior to March 25.

We have reached out to the chamber office for comment and have not yet received a response.

In addition, the public live stream camera outside the chamber office looking over the village square, courtesy of Mr. Fitzgerald, owner of Lake Effect Tech, has recently been taken offline. 

There is a local movement to find an alternate location.  

In addition, we are still waiting confirmation on whether the chamber has approved one of their board members to discuss with us the gathering that took place among the membership on March 16 at the VFW.

This was when the annual meeting was supposed to take place, but was postponed.

Despite that, numerous members organized a meeting anyway – which was still unofficial, but organized with intents to form a quorum.

We will share a synopsis of that gathering once we have confirmation on whether or not one of the board members, who attended, will have approval to speak with us.

Headline image via the Boonville Area Chamber of Commerce.