[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9599-9600]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-02461]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice and Request for Comments

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the National Science Foundation (NSF) is 
inviting the general public or other Federal agencies to comment on a 
proposed addition to its confidentiality pledge, presented on surveys 
conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics 
(NCSES). These revisions are required 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 permit 
and require the Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 
to provide Federal civilian agencies' information technology systems 
with cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic.
    Comments: Comments are invited on: (a) The proposed confidentiality 
pledge's fit for use by NCSES, and (b) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the pledge.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by April 10, 
2017 to be assured consideration. Comments received after that date 
will be considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to address 
below.

ADDRESSES: Written comments regarding the information collection and 
requests for copies of the proposed information collection request 
should be addressed to Suzanne Plimpton, Reports Clearance Officer, 
National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Rm. 1265, Arlington, VA 
22230, or by email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:  Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports 
Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, 
Suite 1265, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone (703) 292-7556; or 
send email to [email protected]. Individuals who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, which is accessible 
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (including Federal 
holidays).

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. The overwhelming majority of Federal surveys are conducted on a 
voluntary basis. Respondents, ranging from businesses to households to 
institutions, may choose whether 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. Strong and trusted confidentiality and exclusively 
statistical use pledges under the CIPSEA and similar statistical 
confidentiality pledges are effective and necessary in honoring the 
trust that businesses, individuals, and institutions, by their 
responses, place in statistical agencies.
    Under the CIPSEA and similar statistical confidentiality protection 
statutes, many Federal statistical agencies 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. The CIPSEA and similar statutes protect the 
confidentiality of information that agencies collect solely for 
statistical purposes and under a pledge of confidentiality. These Acts 
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 many 
legal processes. Moreover, statutes like the CIPSEA 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 enacted the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2029, Division N, Title II, 
Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This Act, among other provisions, requires the 
Secretary of Homeland Security to provide Federal civilian agencies' 
information technology systems with cybersecurity protection for their 
Internet traffic. 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 DHS is not a Federal 
statistical agency, both DHS and the Federal statistical system have 
been successfully engaged in finding a way to balance both objectives 
and achieve these mutually reinforcing objectives.
    As required by passage of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act 
of 2015, the Federal statistical community will implement DHS' 
cybersecurity protection program, called Einstein.
    The technology currently used to provide this protection against 
cyber malware electronically searches Internet traffic in and out of 
Federal civilian

[[Page 9600]]

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 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 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 security and integrity of the respondents' 
submissions.
    Accordingly, DHS and Federal statistical agencies have developed a 
Memorandum of Agreement for the installation of Einstein cybersecurity 
protection technology to monitor their Internet traffic.
    In a separate Federal Register Notice, NSF notified the public that 
the confidentiality pledge for NCSES surveys was being revised, 
effective immediately. Table 1 contains a listing of the current 
numbers and information collection titles for those NSF programs whose 
confidentiality pledges will change to reflect the statutory 
implementation of DHS' Einstein monitoring for cybersecurity protection 
purposes. For the Information Collections listed in the table below, 
NSF statistical confidentiality pledges will be modified to include the 
following sentence, ``Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 
2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through 
screening of the systems that transmit your data.''

   Table 1--Current PRA OMB Numbers, Expiration Dates, and Information
                Collection Titles Included in This Notice
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Information collection
       OMB Control No.        Expiration date            title
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3145-0101...................  08/31/2018.....  Survey of Science and
                                                Engineering Research
                                                Facilities (Facilities).
3145-0019...................  05/31/2018.....  Survey of Earned
                                                Doctorates.
3145-0020...................  08/31/2018.....  Survey of Doctorate
                                                Recipients.
3145-0100...................  09/30/2019.....  Higher Education R&D
                                                Survey.
3145-0141 *.................  05/31/2018.....  National Survey of
                                                College Graduates.
3145-0174...................  07/31/2019.....  Generic Clearance of
                                                Survey Improvement
                                                Projects.
3145-0235...................  06/30/2017.....  Early Career Doctorates
                                                Survey.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* This information collection was also named in a Federal Register
  Notice from the U.S. Census Bureau (81 FR 94321), since that agency
  collects data on NSF's behalf.


    Dated: February 2, 2017.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2017-02461 Filed 2-6-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7555-01-P