Awake

Interior Unfit To Connect to the Internet: Indian Trust Fund Data Vulnerable

Here's an excerpt from an Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton press release, 3/16/2004, that I found particularly interesting....

For the third time since December 2001, a federal district court ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its computer systems from the Internet due to pervasive security weaknesses. The United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued the preliminary injunction as part of the litigation stemming from the eight-year-old Individual Indian Trust case.

Judge Lamberth found that "the continued connection to the Internet of any IT system that houses or accesses individual Indian trust data constitutes further and continuing irreparable injury to Plaintiffs.... Their continued connection to the Internet provides an opportunity for undetectable, unauthorized persons to access, alter, or destroy individual Indian trust data via an Internet connection." Hundreds of millions of dollars in oil, gas, timber, and grazing trust revenues held on behalf of the individual Indian trust beneficiaries are in jeopardy of loss or theft as a result of Interior’s inability to implement effective security measures.

Read the entire press release at:
Judge Again Orders Interior Dept. to Disconnect Computers from Internet; Cites Vulnerability of Trust Fund Data

I have a few reading recommendations for the Department of the Interior, which seems to be the victim of what can only be described as really really bad leadership. (Unless their mission as a department really is to do harmful, stupid, deceptive things to the country's people and lands.) Here they are:

• Well, anything from security.oreilly.com.

Ok well, that's well over hundred books right there. So maybe they can start with that. In the meantime, maybe Secretary Norton can check out this little volume, which is really one of my favorites -- and I think with the right attitude and level of receptivity, could really be an agent of positive change in her life, relationships, and work.