http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/1562181 December 30, 2002 Court Seeks Inquiry Into BIA Internet Use By Roy Mark The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is seeking additional information about commercial e-mail accounts used in violation of a court order prohibiting Internet connections at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Barred from connecting to the Internet since December of last year because of security concerns about the vulnerability of Indian trust fund account databases, the court recently discovered BIA employees using Hotmail, a free e-mail service provided by Microsoft. The use of the Hotmail accounts emerged during a deposition in which the Dept. of Justice submitted e-mails between BIA employees. In a letter of inquiry to the Dept. of Interior, which oversees the BIA, the court cited concerns that the BIA is not monitoring the use of employee e-mail at the agency to properly ensure that no information about the Indian trust funds is contained in the e-mails. The court order disconnecting the BIA from the Internet is part of the long running Elouise Cobell vs. Gale Norton class action lawsuit. Cobell is accusing the Dept. of Interior of mismanaging as many as 800,000 trust funds of past and present native American landowners. As one of many rulings in the 6-year-old case, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered the Dept. of Interior to improve the computer security of the trust fund accounts. In response, the agency disconnected virtually all of Interior's internet connections. In addition, Lamberth held Interior Secretary Norton in contempt of court in September for failing to improve the computer security of the agency. With the exception of the BIA, most Internet connections have been re-established at Interior. John Short <jshort@balsamwest.net> wrote: I don't know the court case off the top of my heas but it should be a quick search on the web. The BIA was taken to court by 1 or more tribes for loosing control of some of the information about the tribe so judge ordered the BIA to stop useing the net. Make it a great day, John Message being sent via my Motorola Q -----Original Message----- From: "delreich@bellsouth.net" To: "indian-territory-roots@rootsweb.com" Sent: 9/1/2006 11:56 PM Subject: Re: [INDIAN-TERRITORY-ROOTS] Requesting informationaboutpetitionsofenrollm... Please let us know of the court order and reason for it. Thanks. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIAN-TERRITORY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIAN-TERRITORY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.