[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12217-12218]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-03971]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


CIPSEA Confidentiality Pledge Revision Notice

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of 
Energy.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Energy Information Administration invites public 
comment on the recent revisions that have been made to the 
confidentiality pledge it provides to its respondents. These revisions 
became effective upon publication of an emergency Federal Register 
notice that announced EIA's revised confidentiality pledge that it 
provides to its respondents under the Confidential Information 
Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act. These revisions are required 
by the passage and implementation of provisions of the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 which permit and require 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: Comments regarding these confidentiality pledge revisions must 
be received on or before May 1, 2017. If you anticipate difficulty in 
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in 
ADDRESSES as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and/or questions about this notice should 
be addressed to Jacob Bournazian, U.S. Energy Information 
Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585 or 
by fax at 202-586-3045 or by email at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jacob Bournazian, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, 
DC 20585, phone: 202-586-5562 (this is not a toll-free number), email: 
[email protected]. Because of delays in the receipt of regular 
mail related to security screening, respondents are encouraged to use 
electronic communications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under 44 U.S.C. 3506(e), and 44 U.S.C. 3501 
(note), EIA revised the confidentiality pledge(s) it provides to survey 
respondents under the Confidential Information Protection and 
Statistical Efficiency Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 (note)) (CIPSEA) in a 
Federal Register notice released on January 12, 2017 in 82 FR 3764. 
These revisions were required by provisions of the Federal 
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-11, Division N, 
Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 223), which permit and require the Secretary 
of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide Federal 
civilian agencies' information technology systems with cybersecurity 
protection for their Internet traffic. 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 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. 
Strong and trusted confidentiality and exclusively

[[Page 12218]]

statistical use pledges under the Confidential Information Protection 
and Statistical Efficiency Act (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 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. 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 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 (Pub. L. 114-113, Division N, 
Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 223). This Act, among other provisions, 
permits and requires DHS 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 moved to a secured area 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 
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 integrity of the respondents' submissions.
    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 
system worked to balance both objectives and achieve these mutually 
reinforcing objectives.
    Accordingly, DHS and Federal statistical agencies, in cooperation 
with their parent departments, developed a Memorandum of Agreement for 
the installation of Einstein 3A cybersecurity protection technology to 
monitor their Internet traffic.
    However, EIA's current CIPSEA statistical confidentiality pledge 
promises 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 
Einstein 3A sensors, EIA needs to revise its confidentiality pledge to 
reflect this process change.
    Therefore, EIA is providing this notice to alert the public of this 
revision to its confidentiality pledge in an efficient and coordinated 
fashion. Below is a listing of EIA's current Paperwork Reduction Act 
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 EIA statistical confidentiality pledge will now apply 
to the Information Collections whose Paperwork Reduction Act Office of 
Management and Budget numbers and titles are listed below.

    The information you provide on Form EIA-XXX will be used for 
statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. In accordance 
with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
Efficiency Act of 2002 and other applicable Federal laws, your 
responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form without your 
consent. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, 
Federal information systems are protected from malicious activities 
through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Every EIA 
employee, as well as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, 
or both if he or she makes public ANY identifiable information you 
reported.

A shorter version of the CIPSEA pledge is used for telephone surveys:

    The information you provide on Form EIA-xxx will be used for 
statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. Per the 
Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, Federal information 
systems are protected from malicious activities through 
cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Every EIA employee, as 
well as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, or both if 
he or she makes public ANY identifiable information you reported.

OMB No: 1905-0174 Petroleum Marketing Program
    Form EIA-863, ``Petroleum Product Sales Identification Survey''
    Form EIA-878, ``Motor Gasoline Price Survey''
    Form EIA-888, ``On-Highway Diesel Fuel Price Survey''
OMB No: 1905-0175 Natural Gas Data Collection Program
    Form EIA-910, ``Monthly Natural Gas Marketers Survey''
    Form EIA-912, ``Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report''
OMB No: 1905-0205 Monthly Natural Gas Production Report
    Form EIA-914, ``Monthly Crude Oil, Lease Condensate, and Natural 
Gas Production Report''
OMB No: 1905-0160 Uranium Data Program
    Form EIA-851Q, ``Domestic Uranium Production Report--Quarterly''
    Form EIA-851A, ``Domestic Uranium Production Report--Annual''
    Form EIA-858, ``Uranium Marketing Annual Survey''
OMB No: 1905-0145 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey
    Form EIA-871, ``Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey''
OMB No. 1905-0092 Residential Energy Consumption Survey
    Form EIA-457, ``Residential Energy Consumption Survey''


    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 23, 2017.
Nanda Srinivasan,
Director, Office of Survey Development and Statistical Integration, 
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 2017-03971 Filed 2-28-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P