Charleston rep. calls for independent hacking probe - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - A Lowcountry lawmaker says an investigation of hacked state tax returns should be done by an independent organization, not politicians.

Charleston Rep. Leon Stavrinakis is also proposing legislation to deal with expenses incurred by taxpayers whose identities have been stolen. He's holding a news conference at 10:30 a.m. in North Charleston Thursday to outline the details.

The state hired a computer security firm to determine what happened and last week, Gov. Nikki Haley said the state could have done more. She also accepted the resignation of Department of Revenue Director Jim Etter.

State officials say a cyber-attack at the state's tax collection agency exposed the personal data of nearly 4 million individual filers and 700,000 businesses.

Copyright 2012 WCSC. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.