First, the agreeable part: Everyone—the government, industry and consumers—agrees that the government should help protect the critical infrastructure that allows our economy to function, and everyone agrees that particular attention should be directed to the protection of water supplies, power grids and gas lines.
Beyond that point, however, the harmony fades. Industry has two big gripes with the new law. First, a meddlesome federal government could require industry to cough up billions of dollars for security measures that may or may not be needed. And second, industry doesn’t trust the government to keep a secret.
There is, of course, good reason for that: The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to release to the public all documents containing information about public health risks and general safety, and the data demanded by the new act would certainly qualify as such. So it’s not surprising that industry spokespeople have been making a lot noise about the dangers of such information falling into the hands of the wrong people, such as terrorists, not to mention investigative reporters or consumer advocacy groups.
Ever innovative, the DHS has found a way to encourage business to share the kind of information that it would not otherwise share: It simply trumped the Freedom of Information Act. The new law now contains a provision that grants the Department of Homeland Security the authority to exempt any information that it deems “protected” from the reaches of FOIA. That provision, of course, is making consumer advocates and environmentalists crazy. They point out that the law creates a convenient method for industry to bury damaging information about such things as plant safety and environmental hazards. All a polluter has to do, they say, is persuade an industry-friendly DHS that certain information should be “protected,” and that information will be off-limits to journalists, stock holders and even plaintiffs in civil lawsuits.
According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, some critics claim that the law could conceivably be used to prosecute whistle-blowers who reveal problems involving any part of a company’s critical infrastructure. The DHS admits that the law is not perfect. If it were, the agency would not be asking the public for comments about it for the next 90 days. But the DHS leaders do want comments. Is there a way to protect the country’s critical infrastructure and keep everybody happy?
http://comment.cio.com/soundoff/021904.html