IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

) ELOUISE PEPION COBELL, et al., ) 
)  
Plaintiffs,  )  Civil Action No. 96-1285  
)  (Judge Robertson)  
v.  )  
)  

DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary of the ) 
Interior, et al., ) 
) 
Defendants. ) 
____________________________________) 

DEFENDANTS’ NOTICE TO THE COURT OF EVENTS 
RELATED TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (“IT”) SECURITY 
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

By this notice, Defendants advise the Court that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) intends to connect the Non-Indian Well Information System (“NIWIS”), a stand-alone subsystem of the Non-Indian Automated Fluid Minerals Support System (“NIAFMSS”), to the Internet. 
In April 2005, portions of the BLM’s IT system, which had reconnected to the Internet under the terms of the “Consent Order” of December 17, 2001, were voluntarily disconnected from the Internet after the results of certain external penetration testing were made known to BLM. In the “Declaration of Ronnie Levine in Support of Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs Consolidated Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction” (“Levine Declaration”) (Docket No.2933, April 18, 2005), the Court was informed that certain file servers housing or accessing individual Indian trust data (“IITD”), referred to as “the Trust Servers,” were disconnected from the rest of the BLM IT network (and the Internet).  Further, BLM represented to the Court that the Trust Servers would not reconnect to the BLM IT network until certain steps were completed, including a determination by the Office of the Inspector General that “potential vulnerabilities have been adequately addressed.” Levine Declaration at ¶ 10. 
In 2005, the Automated Fluid Minerals Support System (“AFMSS”), including the Well Information System (“WIS”), contained both IITD and non-IITD and was disconnected from the BLM IT network as a Trust Server. However, BLM removed all IITD from the system now called NIAFMSS and its subsystem NIWIS (the IITD is now contained on the Indian Automated Fluid Minerals Support System, IAFMSS, which is excluded from the subject of this notice).  The “non-Indian” systems, NIAFMSS and NIWIS, are no longer included within the category of Trust Servers. BLM verified that the non-Indian systems do not contain IITD and that the NIWIS subsystem is secure.  See Declaration of Scott MacPherson, attached as Exhibit A. 
Dated: July 30, 2007 Respectfully submitted, 
PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General 
J. CHRISTOPHER KOHN Director
 /s/ Glenn D. Gillett ROBERT E. KIRSCHMAN, JR. 
(D.C. Bar No. 406635) Deputy Director GLENN D. GILLETT Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division 
P.O. Box 875 Ben Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044-0875 Telephone: (202) 514-7162 Facsimile:  (202) 307-0494 
-2­
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 
I hereby certify that, on July 30, 2007 the foregoing Defendants’ Notice to the Court of Events Related to Information Technology (“IT”) Security of the Department of the Interior was served by Electronic Case Filing, and on the following who is not registered for Electronic Case Filing, by facsimile: 
Earl Old Person (Pro se) Blackfeet Tribe 
P.O. Box 850 Browning, MT 59417 Fax (406) 338-7530 
/s/ Kevin P. Kingston Kevin P. Kingston 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

ELOISE PEPION COBELL, et aI.,  )  
, Plaintiffs,  )  
)  
v.  )  Civil Action 96-1285  
)  (Judge Robertson)  
)  
DIRK KE:MPTHORNE, Secretary of the  )  
Interior, et aI.,  
Defendants.  

DECLARATION OF SCOTT MACPHERSON 
1. 	
Iam the Deputy ChiefInfonnationOfficerfor the Bureau ofLandManagement, United States Department of the Interior ("BLM"). One of my responsibilities in this capacity is oversight ofBLM's adherence to applicable Department of the Interior policies and directives governing the use of infom1ation teohnology. 

2. 	
BLM has a national information teclmology system knO'W!l as the Automated Fluid Minerals Support System (AFMSS), which is an inspection and enforcement workload support system for fluid minerals management. AFMSS was originally comprised of 31 individual databases, 10 of which included Indian trust data. AFMSS was voluntarilY disconnected by BLM from the Internet on Aril 8, 2005. This action was taken on the basis of results of external penetration testing oonducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior. 

3. 	
Subsequently AFMSS was divided into databases containing Indian trust data, known as Indian AFMSS ("IAFMSS"); and databases that did not include Indian trust data, known as non-Indian AFMSS ("NIAFMSS"). Although N1AFMSS was reconnected to the Internet on September 9,2005, lAFMSS remains discoilllected. 

4. 	
The Well Information System (WIS) is a subsystem of AFMSS comprised of web-based well pennit and report forms and a database ofinfonnation about onshore oil and gas wells. WIS was used extensively by oil and gas operators before being disabled by the Department of the Interior in March of2005 while security-boundaries were being established for the purpose of Certification and Accreditation ("C&A"). A C&A ensures that appropriate management controls in 

EXHIBIT A
Defendants’ Notice to the Court of
Events Related to Information Technology
(“IT”) Security of the Department of the Interior
Page 1 of 2


accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act are in place for a particular system. 
5. 	
In 2006 BLM reconfigured WIS to exclude Indian trust data, creating the non­lndian Well Information System, or N1W1S. NIWIS has never been cOJulected to the Internet. 

6. 	
NI\VIS received its current C&A on October 18, 2006. 

7. 	
Oil and gas companies which operate on federal land need access to NIWIS in order to submit applications for well permits, production data, and other information electronically to BLM. These operators have been adversely impacted by lack ofthat access, 

8. 	
BLM's productivity and service has also been adversely impacted by the oil and gas operators' lack of Intemet access to NIWIS. 

9. 	
On November 16,2006, a security vulnerability assessment was performed on NTW1S by an independent contractor, RCI Technology, Inc. The assessment demonstrated that the NTWIS is appropriately secure. 

10. 
Reconnection ofthe NI\VIS to the Internet is vital to the federal oil and gas program and must be accomplished in order for BLM to comply with the Energy Act of2005. 


I declare that the foregoing is true and correct to the best ofmy knowledge, information, and belief. 
~r.~et.-~ 
Scott MacPherson 
Deputy Chief Infonnation Officer 
Bureau ofLand Management 

EXHIBIT A
Defendants’ Notice to the Court of
Events Related to Information Technology
(“IT”) Security of the Department of the Interior
Page 2 of 2