Judge shutters Interior Department IT systems, Web sites

Computerworld - A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit involving a trust fund for American Indians ordered computers of the U.S. Department of the Interior that administer the fund to be shuttered because they are inadequately protected. The action shut down much of the Interior Department's Web site and the sites of many of the agencies under its authority.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled Wednesday that the federal agency must "immediately disconnect from the Internet all computers within the control of the Department of the Interior, its employees and contractors, that have access to [Individual Indian Monies Trust] data."

The Interior Department and the agencies it oversees, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, have been shut off from the Internet, pending a solution to the issue in the case before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Spokesmen for the department didn't respond to several requests for comment, although one person in the Office of Resources Management said IT staffers were meeting to discuss the effects of shutting off from the Internet, including the possible disabling of electronic form filing. The Interior Department's home page remained inaccessible Friday afternoon.

According to court documents (download PDF), a report on security of the trust fund data found that "access to most network resources is protected only by user IDs and passwords. No other access control mechanisms, such as firewalls, [virtual private networks or] strong authentication, are implemented." It also found that a security firm hired to test the computers was able to hack into the trust database undetected, the report said.

In court documents, former Interior CIO Dominic Nessi is quoted as saying, "For all practical purposes, we have no security, we have no infrastructure. Our entire network has no firewalls on it. I don't like running a network that can be breached by a high school kid. I don't like running a program that is out of compliance with federal statutes, especially when I have no ability to put it into compliance."

The Interior Department faced a class-action suit brought by American Indians claiming that the U.S. government mismanaged an Indian land trust fund. The lead plaintiff in the suit was Elouise Cobell, who at one point served as treasurer and controller of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe. That suit was initially brought against Bruce Babbitt, Interior secretary under President Clinton.

In a new lawsuit, the plaintiffs are seeking a temporary restraining order against Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her agency for failing to maintain and protect data in the