[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 244 (Tuesday, December 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 92774-92776]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-30658]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

National Agricultural Statistics Service


Confidentiality Pledge Revision Notice

AGENCY: National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Under 44 U.S.C. 3506(e), and 44 U.S.C. 3501, the National 
Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is renewing a revision to the 
confidentiality pledge it provides to its respondents under CIPSEA and 
Title 7, Chapter 55, Section 2276. This renewal will be valid for three 
years. The revision was originally approved by the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) on December 1, 2016 under an emergency request. The 
original request was warranted by the passage and implementation of 
provisions of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 
2029, Division N, Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 223), which permits and 
requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide federal civilian 
agencies' information technology systems with cybersecurity protection 
for their Internet traffic. More details on this announcement are 
presented in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by February 21, 2017 to 
be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number 0535-
0260, by any of the following methods:
     Email: [email protected]. Include docket number 
above in the subject line of the message.
     E-fax: (855) 838-6382.
     Mail: Mail any paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions to: 
David Hancock, NASS Clearance Officer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Room 5336 South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 
20250-2024.
     Hand Delivery/Courier: Hand deliver to: David Hancock, 
NASS Clearance Officer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 5336, 
South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20250-
2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: R. Renee Picanso, Associate 
Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, (202) 720-4333, or email [email protected]. 
Copies of this information collection and related instructions can be 
obtained without charge from David Hancock, NASS--OMB Clearance 
Officer, at (202) 690-2388 or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under CIPSEA; Title 7, Chapter 55, Section 
2276; and similar statistical confidentiality protection statutes, many 
federal statistical agencies, including NASS, make statutory pledges 
that the information respondents provide will be seen only by 
statistical agency personnel or their sworn agents, and will be used 
only for statistical purposes. CIPSEA and Title 7, Chapter 55, Section 
2276 protect such statistical information from administrative, law 
enforcement, taxation, regulatory, or any other non-statistical use and 
immunize the information submitted to statistical agencies from legal 
process. Moreover, many of these statutes carry criminal penalties of a 
Class E felony (fines up to $250,000, or up to five years in prison, or 
both) for conviction of a knowing and willful unauthorized disclosure 
of covered information.
    As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 
signed on December 17, 2015, the Congress included the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2029, Division N, Title II, 
Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This Act, among other provisions, permits and 
requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide federal civilian 
agencies' information technology systems with cybersecurity protection 
for their Internet traffic. The technology currently used to provide 
this protection against cyber malware is known as ``Einstein 3A''. It 
electronically searches Internet traffic in and out of federal civilian 
agencies in real time for malware signatures.
    When such a signature is found, the Internet packets that contain 
the malware signature are shunted aside for further inspection by 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel. Because it is possible 
that such packets entering or leaving a statistical agency's 
information technology system may contain confidential statistical 
data, statistical agencies can no longer promise their respondents that 
their responses will be seen only by statistical agency personnel or 
their sworn agents. However, they can promise, in accordance with 
provisions of the

[[Page 92775]]

Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, that such monitoring can 
be used only to protect information and information systems from 
cybersecurity risks, thereby, in effect, providing stronger protection 
to the integrity of the respondents' submissions.
    Consequently, with the passage of the Federal Cybersecurity 
Enhancement Act of 2015, the federal statistical community has an 
opportunity to welcome the further protection of its confidential data 
offered by DHS' Einstein 3A cybersecurity protection program. The DHS 
cybersecurity program's objective is to protect federal civilian 
information systems from malicious malware attacks. The federal 
statistical system's objective is to ensure that the DHS Secretary 
performs those essential duties in a manner that honors the 
Government's statutory promises to the public to protect their 
confidential data. Given that the Department of Homeland Security is 
not a federal statistical agency, both DHS and the federal statistical 
agencies have been engaged in finding a way to balance both objectives 
and achieve these mutually reinforcing objectives.
    Accordingly, DHS and federal statistical agencies (including NASS), 
in cooperation with their parent departments, have developed a 
Memorandum of Agreement for the installation of Einstein 3A 
cybersecurity protection technology to monitor their Internet traffic 
and have incorporated an associated Addendum on Highly Sensitive Agency 
Information that provides additional protection and enhanced security 
handling of confidential statistical data. However, CIPSEA; Title 7, 
Chapter 55, Section 2276; and similar statistical confidentiality 
pledges promise that respondents' data will be seen only by statistical 
agency personnel or their sworn agents. Since it is possible that DHS 
personnel could see some portion of those confidential data in the 
course of examining the suspicious Internet packets identified by the 
Einstein 3A technology, statistical agencies need to revise their 
confidentiality pledges to reflect this process change.
    Therefore, NASS is providing this notice to alert the public to 
this confidentiality pledge revision in an efficient and coordinated 
fashion. Below is the revised confidentiality pledge as it will appear 
on NASS survey questionnaires, as well as the revision to NASS's 
confidentiality Web page. A list of the NASS OMB numbers and 
information collection titles that will be affected by this revision is 
also included below.
    The revised confidentiality pledge to appear on NASS questionnaires 
is below:

    The information you provide will be used for statistical 
purposes only. Your responses will be kept confidential and any 
person who willfully discloses ANY identifiable information about 
you or your operation is subject to a jail term, a fine, or both.
    This survey is conducted in accordance with the Confidential 
Information Protection provisions of Title V, Subtitle A, Public Law 
107-347 and other applicable Federal laws. For more information on 
how we protect your information please visit: https://www.nass.usda.gov/confidentiality.

    For voluntary surveys the statement, ``Response to this survey is 
voluntary.'' will follow this pledge. For mandatory surveys the 
statement, ``Response to this survey is mandatory.'' or ``Response to 
this survey is required by law.'' will follow.
    The NASS confidentiality pledge Web page: https://www.nass.usda.gov/confidentiality will be revised to include a fifth 
item explaining that DHS will monitor the transmission of data for 
cybersecurity threats. Item 5 is below:

5. Data Are Protected From Cybersecurity Threats

    Per the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are 
further protected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through 
cybersecurity monitoring of the systems that transmit your data. DHS 
will be monitoring these systems to look for viruses, malware and other 
threats. In the event of a cybersecurity incident, and pursuant to any 
required legal process, information from these sources may be used to 
help identify and mitigate the incident.
    Affected information collections:

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                                         Expiration
               OMB No.                      date                      Information collection title
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0535-0001............................      04/30/2019  Cold Storage.
0535-0002............................      10/31/2018  Field Crops Production.
0535-0003............................      07/31/2019  Agricultural Prices.
0535-0004............................      01/31/2019  Egg, Chicken, and Turkey Surveys.
0535-0005............................      11/30/2017  Livestock Slaughter.
0535-0007............................      01/31/2019  Stocks Reports.
0535-0020............................      07/31/2018  Milk and Milk Products.
0535-0037............................      08/31/2019  Vegetable Surveys.
0535-0039............................      10/31/2019  Fruit, Nuts, and Specialty Crops.
0535-0088............................      07/31/2018  Field Crops Objective Yield.
0535-0093............................      11/30/2018  Floriculture Survey.
0535-0109............................      03/31/2018  Agricultural Labor.
0535-0140............................      01/31/2019  List Sampling Frame Survey.
0535-0150............................      06/30/2017  Aquaculture.
0535-0153............................      12/31/2018  Honey Survey.
0535-0212............................      11/30/2018  Mink Survey.
0535-0213............................      06/30/2017  Agricultural Surveys Program.
0535-0218............................      07/31/2018  Agricultural Resource Management and Chemical Use Surveys
                                                        (ARMS).
0535-0220............................      03/31/2017  Cotton Ginnings.
0535-0226............................      10/31/2019  Census of Agriculture.
0535-0243............................      08/31/2018  Census of Agriculture Content Test.
0535-0244............................      11/30/2019  Nursery Production Survey and Nursery and Floriculture
                                                        Chemical Use Survey.
0535-0245............................      09/30/2017  CEAP--NRI Conservation Tillage and Nutrient Management
                                                        Survey.
0535-0248............................      04/30/2019  Generic Clearance of Survey Improvement Projects.
0535-0249............................      12/31/2017  Organic Production Survey.
0535-0251............................      05/30/2019  Residue and Biomass Field Survey.
0535-0254............................      07/31/2017  Current Agricultural Industrial Reports (CAIR).
0535-0255............................      04/30/2018  Colony Loss.
0535-0256............................      06/30/2018  Feral Swine Survey.
0535-0257............................      10/31/2018  Organic Certifier Census.

[[Page 92776]]

 
0535-0258............................      11/30/2018  Cost of Pollination Survey.
0535-0259............................      03/31/2019  Local Foods Survey.
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    Signed at Washington, DC, December 12, 2016.
R. Renee Picanso,
Associate Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2016-30658 Filed 12-19-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-20-P