Judge orders partial Internet blackout at Interior

The Interior Department this week has disconnected computer systems from the Internet for the second time in two years under orders from a federal judge concerned about computer security for Native Americans' financial records.

The Minerals Management Service has disconnected 2,500 computers and the Bureau of Land Management has disconnected 250 computers that could provide access to the records, which store information about Indian trust accounts, according to Interior spokesman Stephen Brooks. The computers will be disconnected until a court-appointed monitor determines the Indian records are secure, said U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth's June 27 order cutting off the systems.

Lamberth first ordered the Interior Department to sever its Internet connections in December 2001. At that time, almost all of the department's computers were disconnected from the Internet, leaving employees offline and the public unable to access information about national parks and public lands.

During the first half of 2002, most of the Interior Department's Internet connections were restored after Special Master Alan Balaran, the court-appointed monitor, verified that Indian records were not at risk of a security breach. Several offices, most notably the Bureau of Indian Affairs, never received Balaran's approval and have been offline for a year and a half. Under Lamberth's June 27 order, most of Interior's Web sites and Internet connections have remained online, including those of the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey. Those agencies' systems don't store information about Indian trust accounts, Interior officials said.

The trust accounts are the focus of an ongoing lawsuit between Native American groups and the Interior Department, which manages the accounts on behalf of Native Americans. Groups that use Indian lands for oil, gas and mineral extraction, as well as other activities, pay the Interior Department for their use. Interior then distributes money to Native Americans through the trust accounts. Native American groups have alleged in the lawsuit that Interior has mismanaged the accounts for decades and owes Indians billions of dollars in damages.

The Internet blackout in 2001 came after Government Executive reported that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' chief information officer had no confidence in the bureau's computer security. (See "Trail of Troubles," April 2001 Federal Performance Report.) "I don't like running a network that can be breached by a high school kid," Indian Affairs CIO Dom Nessi told Government Executive at the time. The plaintiffs in the trust account lawsuit asked Lamberth to order the Interior Department offline.

Last month, the plaintiffs again asked Lamberth to order the department to disconnect computers after Balaran reported that he could once again not verify the security of Interior's systems. Interior officials last month refused to let a security firm hired by Balaran test out security holes by "penetrating" the department's computer systems until new procedures for the tests were worked out. Balaran said in a letter to Interior officials that he thought the procedures had been agreed upon.