[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 251 (Friday, December 30, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 96521-96523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-31705]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Justice Programs

[OMB Number 1121-NEW]


BJS Confidentiality Pledge Revision Notice

AGENCY: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Justice.

ACTION: 30-Day notice.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a component of the 
Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in the U.S. Department of Justice 
(DOJ), is announcing revisions to the confidentiality pledge(s) it 
provides to its respondents. These revisions are required by the 
passage and implementation of provisions of the federal Cybersecurity 
Enhancement Act of 2015, which requires the Secretary of the Department 
of Homeland Security (DHS) 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: These revisions become effective on December 30, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Questions about this notice should be addressed to the 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. 
Department of Justice, ATTN: Allina Lee, 810 7th Street NW., 
Washington, DC 20151.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Allina Lee by telephone at 202-305-
0765 (this is not a toll-free number); by email at 
[email protected]; or by mail or courier to the Bureau of Justice 
Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 
ATTN: Allina Lee, 810 7th Street NW., Washington, DC 20151. Because of 
delays in the receipt of regular mail related to security screening, 
respondents are encouraged to use electronic communications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Federal statistics provide key information 
that the Nation uses to measure its performance and make informed 
choices about budgets, employment, health, investments, taxes, and a 
host of other significant topics. Most federal surveys are completed on 
a voluntary basis. Respondents, ranging from businesses to households 
to institutions, may choose whether or not to provide the requested 
information. Many of the most valuable federal statistics come from 
surveys that ask for highly sensitive information such as proprietary 
business data from companies or particularly personal information or 
practices from individuals. BJS protects all data collected under its 
authority under the confidentiality provisions of 42 U.S.C. 3789g. 
Strong and trusted confidentiality and exclusively statistical use 
pledges under Title 42 U.S.C. 3789g and similar statutes are effective 
and necessary in honoring the trust that businesses, individuals, and 
institutions, by their responses, place in statistical agencies.

[[Page 96522]]

    Under statistical confidentiality protection statutes, federal 
statistical agencies make statutory pledges that the information 
respondents provide will be seen only by statistical agency personnel 
or their agents and will be used only for statistical purposes. These 
statutes 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 monetary fines and/or 
criminal penalties for conviction of a knowing and willful unauthorized 
disclosure of covered information. Any person violating the 
confidentiality provisions of 42 U.S.C. 3789g may be punished by a fine 
of up to $10,000, in addition to any other penalties imposed by law.
    As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 
(Pub. L. 114-113) signed on December 17, 2015, the Congress included 
the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (codified in relevant 
part at 6 U.S.C. 151). 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. Einstein 
3A 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 DHS 
personnel. Because it is possible that such packets entering or leaving 
a statistical agency's information technology system may contain a 
small portion of confidential statistical data, statistical agencies 
can no longer promise their respondents that their responses will be 
seen only by statistical agency personnel or their agents. However, 
federal statistical agencies can promise, in accordance with provisions 
of the 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 endeavor to ensure that the DHS 
Secretary performs those essential duties in a manner that honors the 
statistical agencies' statutory promises to the public to protect their 
confidential data. DHS and the federal statistical system have been 
successfully engaged in finding a way to balance both objectives and 
achieve these mutually reinforcing objectives.
    However, pledges of confidentiality made pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 
3789g and similar statutes assure respondents that their data will be 
seen only by statistical agency personnel or their agents. Because 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 Einstein 3A sensors, statistical agencies are 
revising their confidentiality pledges to reflect this process change.
    Therefore, BJS is providing this notice to alert the public to 
these confidentiality pledge revisions in an efficient and coordinated 
fashion. Below is a listing of BJS's current Paperwork Reduction Act 
(PRA) OMB numbers and information collection titles and their 
associated revised confidentiality pledge(s) for the Information 
Collections whose confidentiality pledges will change to reflect the 
statutory implementation of DHS' Einstein 3A monitoring for 
cybersecurity protection purposes.
    The following BJS statistical confidentiality pledge will now apply 
to the Information Collections conducted by BJS and protected under 42 
U.S.C. 3789g, whose PRA OMB numbers and titles are listed below. The 
new lines added to address the new cybersecurity monitoring activities 
are bolded for reference only, and will not be bolded in the pledge 
provided to respondents:
    ``The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is dedicated to 
maintaining the confidentiality of your personally identifiable 
information, and will protect it to the fullest extent under federal 
law. BJS, BJS employees, and BJS data collection agents will use the 
information you provide for statistical purposes only, and will not 
disclose your information in identifiable form without your consent to 
anyone outside of the BJS project team. All data collected under BJS's 
authority are protected under the confidentiality provisions of 42 
U.S.C. 3789g, and any person who violates these provisions may be 
punished by a fine up to $10,000, in addition to any other penalties 
imposed by law. Further, per the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 
(codified in relevant part at 6 U.S.C. 151), federal information 
systems are protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity 
screening of transmitted data. For more information on the federal 
statutes, regulations, and other authorities that govern how BJS, BJS 
employees, and data collection agents use, handle, and protect your 
information, see the BJS Data Protection Guidelines.''

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          OMB  Control  No.              Information collection title
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1121-0094...........................  Deaths in Custody Reporting
                                       Program.
1121-0065...........................  National Corrections Reporting
                                       Program.
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    BJS has also added information about the Cybersecurity Enhancement 
Act and Einstein 3A to the BJS Data Protection Guidelines to provide 
more details to interested respondents about the new cybersecurity 
monitoring requirements. The following text has been added to Section 
V. Information System Security and Privacy Requirements:
    ``The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (codified in relevant 
part at 6 U.S.C. 151) required the Department of Homeland Security 
(DHS) to provide cybersecurity protection for federal civilian agency 
information technology systems and to conduct cybersecurity screening 
of the Internet traffic going in and out of these systems to look for 
viruses, malware, and other cybersecurity threats. DHS has implemented 
this requirement by instituting procedures such that, if a potentially 
malicious malware signature were found, the Internet packets that 
contain the malware signature would be further inspected, pursuant to 
any legal required legal process, to identify and mitigate the 
cybersecurity threat. In accordance with the Act's provisions, DHS 
conducts these cybersecurity screening activities solely to protect 
federal information and information systems from cybersecurity risks. 
OJP has installed DHS's cybersecurity protection software, Einstein 3A, 
on its information technology systems to comply with the Act's 
requirements and to further safeguard the information transmitted to 
and from its systems, including BJS data, from cybersecurity threats 
and vulnerabilities.''
    The Census Bureau collects data on behalf of BJS for the below 
listing of PRA OMB numbers and information collection titles. These 
collections are

[[Page 96523]]

protected under Title 13 U.S.C. Section 9. The Census Bureau issued a 
Federal Register notice (FRN) and submitted an emergency clearance 
request to OMB for revised confidentiality pledge language, with the 
new line to address the new cybersecurity screening requirements bolded 
for reference:
    ``The U.S. Census Bureau is required by law to proteect your 
information. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release 
your responses in a way that could identify you. Per the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from 
cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your 
data.''

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          OMB  Control  No.              Information collection title
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1121-0111...........................  National Crime Victimization
                                       Survey (NCVS).
1121-0184...........................  School Crime Supplement to the
                                       NCVS.
1121-0317...........................  Identity Theft Supplement to the
                                       NCVS.
1121-0260...........................  Police Public Contact Supplement
                                       to the NCVS.
1121-0302...........................  Supplemental Victimization Survey
                                       to the NCVS.
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    The FRN submitted by the Census Bureau can be accessed at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/14/2016-30014/confidentiality-pledge-revision-notice, and the Census Bureau's PRA 
clearance request can be accessed at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=201612-0607-001.
    If additional information is required contact: Melody Braswell, 
Department Clearance Officer, United States Department of Justice, 
Justice Management Division, Policy and Planning Staff, Two 
Constitution Square, 145 N Street NE., 3E.405B, Washington, DC 20530.

    Dated: December 27, 2016.
Melody Braswell,
Department Clearance Officer, U.S. Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2016-31705 Filed 12-29-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4410-18-P