The first heads rolled late last week in the growing scandal surrounding office emails containing pornography in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. Gov. Tom Corbett disclosed the resignations of Environmental Protection Secretary Christopher Abruzzo and Glenn Parno, a top lawyer in the Department of Environmental Protection, in separate announcements hours apart.

The departures came a week after the attorney general’s office identified eight ex-employees as having sent or received pornographic images or videos. All eight men worked under Corbett while he was the state’s elected attorney general from 2005 to 2011.

In a resignation letter, Abruzzo said he hasn’t been shown any direct evidence of any professional misjudgment he’s alleged to have committed in 2009. Abruzzo said he resigned to remove distraction from Corbett and his bid for re-election.

Too late for that. The allegations cast a shadow on the governor’s already sagging campaign.

The disclosure of professional misconduct also shows a persistent inability of many competent professionals to separate their work life — and real life — from their ventures into cyberspace.

“People do stupid things,” John Sancenito, a Harrisburg-area technology consultant, told the Harrisburg online newspaper Pennlive. “An acceptable use policy is something that everybody signs when they go to work for an organization. ... But when it comes to putting that into action, most people are completely oblivious and they don’t understand that that document they just signed and acknowledged really applies to pushing ‘send’ on the email that they get with a pornographic image.”

It must be noted that the individuals facing allegations were once deeply connected either with law enforcement or the Office of Attorney General, or both. Some of them routinely grab evidence from computers all the time. What hope does that give other professionals to avoid a costly Internet stumble?

Perhaps the answer to that question is the example of state police Commissioner Frank Noonan.

One of eight former AG employees originally named in the scandal, Noonan, it turns out, never opened an incriminating email, never forwarded one, never originated one, according to a follow-up inquiry by Gov. Corbett.

That’s especially fortunate because Noonan has been supervising a massive manhunt in Northeastern Pennsylvania for accused cop-killer Eric Frein — a manhunt that’s about to enter its fourth week.

If only one critique could be raised against Noonan, it’s that he read suggestive headers on the explicit emails and neglected to report them to anyone. In Noonan’s defense, he didn’t open any of them and therefore didn’t know specifically what they contained; however, if the suggestive subject lines were enough to persuade Noonan not to open the emails, then they should have been enough for him to report a suspicion of professional misconduct.

It’s always been a good rule never to open email with a questionable or unclear subject header. It’s also a good idea never forward that type of email or reply to it. It’s also probably a good idea to report any questionable online activity to a supervisor or IT person.

It’s the prudent — and safe — thing to do.