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Dateline: 12/11/01
Several key Interior Department Web sites are now offline as a result of a court order requiring that the Department cut itself off from the Internet.
The Internet shutdown began December 6 when U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued the order arising from a long-running lawsuit alleging mismanagement of Internet security issues by the federal government in the handling of trust funds for American Indians.
Key Web sites affected included the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geologic Survey, National Parks Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Interagency Fire Information Center.
Since the order also prevented email communications, the agencies have been forced to exchange critical information using only telephones and paper documents.
Not only are these popular sites used by public for accessing information and doing research, some of their services are critical to public safety. The National Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) was unable to issue its seismic activity bulletins. In the event of a major quake, USGS would have been unable to keep the Federal Emergency Management Agency updated electronically.
The Department of Defense also depends USGS earthquake information to detect nuclear detonations around the world.
On December 10, Judge Lamberth issued an order granting the USGS and the National Interagency Fire Information Center permission to resume limited Internet activity, providing the agencies sign affidavits stating that their systems no longer house or allow access to individual Indian trust data.
"We appreciate Judge Lamberth's decision to hear our emergency motion for partial relief and we will comply with his order," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
The USGS resumed its Web service on the morning of December 11. The National Interagency Fire Information Center remains offline, but hopes to be back in service soon. All other Interior Department Web sites remained offline as the morning of December 11.
In a related story, About Guide to Genealogy Kimberly Powell reports that government Web sites across the nation are frantically removing access to public records in reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"American government officials are now actively questioning whether citizens are willing to curtail easy access to public information in exchange for greater personal and national security," writes Powell. "The news that the suspects in the September 11 terrorist attacks were able to get fake driver's licenses and other documents from information obtained online has many state and federal government agencies scrambling to remove public documents from the Internet." [See: Identities for Sale, by Kimberly Powell]
