3 26 2018 TAKE ME TO Select business type RFP INFO CONTACT RFP-INFO HAVE A BREACH CONTACT BREACH-INFORMATION Cyber Security And the Freedom Of Information Act ID Experts MyIDCare Login https myidcare com login HOME HTTPS WWW2 IDEXPERTSCORP COM KNOWLEDGE CENTER KNOWLEDGE-CENTER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN AN ERA OF CYBER-THREATS YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW VS YOUR SAFETY Back to Knowledge Center knowledge-center Freedom of Information in an Era of Cyber-Threats Your Right to Know vs Your Safety By Doug Pollack knowledge-center author 6 - on May 23 2016 As citizens in a democracy we value transparency in government The Freedom of Information Act FOIA http www foia gov aims to do just that by giving citizens the right to access information from the federal government And in theory the FOIA is a good idea In practice the law which was signed into law 50 years ago this summer has had a controversial and tumultuous history In an era of cyber-attacks the “right to access information” has become a critical issue Events such as the hacker who published the personal information of 20 000 FBI agents https motherboard vice com read hacker-publishes-personal-info-of20000-fbi-agents have made cybersecurity a top-of-mind issue http www govhealthit com blog apple-vsfbi-and-cybersecurity-act-2015-3-questions-ask-sharing-data for the federal government Ponemon Report Criminals continue to target healthcare data https www2 idexpertscorp com sixthannual-ponemon-benchmark-study-on-privacy-security-of-healthcare-data-incidents utm_source Website utm_medium link utm_campaign Blog%20CTA How ‘Critical’ Is Your Need to Know The FOIA has exemptions to protect personal privacy law enforcement national security and other interests But when national security depends on computer codes and not nuclear codes which information to make available becomes a little muddier In Virginia for example a new bill would change the state’s de nition of “critical infrastructure” to match the https www2 idex federal code This would allow the state to keep private details about water pipes electricity transformers broadband cables and the like According to The News Virginian http www dailyprogress com newsvirginian news bill-would-allow-va-to-withhold-critical-infrastructure-infofor article_937f1400-e41c-11e5-9512-c39c70d2bc27 html private companies have not shared information with the government because the state’s FOIA would make it available to the public The bill “helps…to de ne the categories of the critical infrastructure…and continues on the work…to secure cyber information ” said state Senator Jeremy McPike https www richmondsunlight com bill 2016 sb645 who introduced the bill “This extends to cyber as well as physical infrastructure and provides a frame work to protect that information…and to increase information sharing amongst our public safety entities… ” https www2 idexpertscorp com knowledge-center single freedom-of-information-in-an-era-of-cyber-threats-your-right-to-know-vs -yo 1 3 3 26 2018 Had he been alive Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may haveOf approved of thisAct bill “When the act was Cyber Security And the Freedom Information ID Experts passed it was seen as a means of revealing what the government was doing for the bene t of the public at large ” he said in a U S News debate back in 1982 http www usnews com opinion articles 2016-0216 scalia-gave-us-news-his-take-on-foia-in-1982 “But in operation it has been used largely as a means of revealing what private companies are doing for the bene t of their adversaries and competitors ” Cyber-threats to our national security are not hypothetical Information Security Buzz http www informationsecuritybuzz com hacker-news hackers-attack-water-systems reported that according to Verizon’s Data breach digest http www verizonenterprise com resources reports rp_databreach-digest_xg_en pdf hackers in ltrated a computer system at a water treatment plant They changed the settings that controlled the amount of chemicals used in treating tap water Monzy Merza Splunk’s director of cyber research and chief security evangelist told Information Security Buzz “Working collectively is our best route to getting ahead of attackers ” One could argue that companies are more apt to cooperate if they know their proprietary information is not accessible under FOIA An Information Energy Drain On a more frightening scale USA Today reported http www usatoday com story news 2015 09 09 cyberattacks-doe-energy 71929786 last September that attackers had successfully compromised the U S Department of Energy’s computer systems 159 times between 2010 and 2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration an agency within the Energy Department that is responsible for managing and securing the nation’s nuclear weapons suffered 19 successful attacks during that time These statistics are based on records https assets documentcloud org documents 2388337 doe-jc3 pdf that USA Today obtained ironically thanks to FOIA “The potential for an adversary to disrupt shut down power systems or worse…is real here ” Scott White professor of Homeland Security and Security Management and Director of the Computing Security and Technology program at Drexel University told USA Today “It’s absolutely real ” A FOIA Reality Check That’s not to say that we as citizens shouldn’t have access to government information Quite the contrary To “celebrate” access to public information the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press held its annual Sunshine Week http www sunshineweek org last month The FOIA IT Working Group a forum for agencies to discuss how to use technology to administer FOIA held its annual meeting https www justice gov oip blog sunshine-week-meeting-it-working-group-focuses-leveragingtechnology-foia-administration during Sunshine Week The use of technology to facilitate FOIA in its mission to provide information is apt According to an Associated Press http bigstory ap org article 697e3523003049cdb0847ecf828afd62 us-govt-sets-recordfailures- nd- les-when-asked analysis in more than one in six requests for information last year federal employees told citizens journalists and others “that despite searching they couldn’t nd a single page of les requested under the Freedom of Information Act ” The quality of these searches has been questioned “It seems like they’re doing the minimal amount of work they need to do ” Jason Leopold an investigative reporter at Vice News and a leading expert on the records law told the Associated Press “I just don't believe them I really question the integrity of their search ” Despite these challenges journalists and others are using state and federal Freedom of Information laws to uncover stories http sunshineweek rcfp org foi-in-action about everything from the number of school bus accidents in New York City to the public health of Seattle’s coffee shops And the National Security Archive http nsarchive gwu edu index html which houses a massive collection of declassi ed U S documents makes use of FOIA to bulk up its newly launched Cyber Vault http nsarchive gwu edu cybervault index html https www2 idex —an online resource that documents the cyber activities of the U S and foreign governments and international organizations A Balancing Act The Freedom of Information Act is important A government that operates in secrecy is not a democracy Yet cyber-attacks raise the stakes for national security hostile nation-states or other threat actors can more easily wreak havoc and maintain secrecy And as technology advances the con ict between these two competing interests will only sharpen Ponemon Report Criminals continue to target healthcare data https www2 idexpertscorp com sixthannual-ponemon-benchmark-study-on-privacy-security-of-healthcare-data-incidents https www2 idexpertscorp com knowledge-center single freedom-of-information-in-an-era-of-cyber-threats-your-right-to-know-vs -yo tm so rce Website tm medi m link tm campaign Blog%20CTA 2 3