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MINNESOTA TELEPHONE ASSOCIATION Telecommunications Guide January 2, 2002
Minnesota Telcos Deal with a Changed
Landscape The terrorist attacks of September 11 changed everything. And although most people say they have now returned to their “normal” lives, the problem is that normal now includes thoughts and activities that weren’t part of our daily lives before the attacks. For telecommunications companies, “normal” now includes thinking about and preparing for emergencies that, while unlikely, must still be considered. Today’s new reality also includes dealing with a tougher federal anti-terrorism law that changes the rules about wiretaps and disclosing Internet subscriber information. Network Security In response to a writer’s question about his firm’s security measures, a representative from a national telecommunications company recently said that “part of our security measures is not talking about security in public.” That statement could easily be attributed to any utility provider in Minnesota or across the nation because no one wants to provide information, even inadvertently, that might prove helpful to terrorists. But even though companies aren’t publicly talking about how they protect their systems, some facts make the picture a little clearer. The first is redundant systems. “Phone companies are better off than many industries,” said Jerry Knickerbocker, director of legislative and regulatory relations for the Minnesota Telephone Association, “because communications networks have redundancies built in. Everything has a backup.” Many lines are also safe because they are underground. Perhaps the most important security factor for telcos is experience. With defined geographic areas to take care of, plus know-how gained from dealing with outages caused by storms and other natural phenomena, phone companies have emergency plans in place they can act on quickly. Priorities for restoring communications – hospitals and law enforcement first, for example – are set. But recent events have forced everyone – government, individual companies and every industry – to take a hard look at how secure they are and how they would respond to a major emergency. The Governor’s Emergency Preparedness Council, headed by Department of Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver, was set up to inventory the status of key industries, including public safety, transportation, energy and communications. Of the effort, Knickerbocker says, “This is a conversation that has never been held before. We need to make sure we learn whatever we need to know to keep our communications secure. We need to determine what we need to protect on a statewide basis.” Minnesota telcos are working with the state’s Public Utilities Commission and its executive secretary, Burl Haar, the state’s liaison for emergency planning with Minnesota’s telecommunications industry. “I’ve been meeting with representatives of the telephone industry and have found that, generally, the level of preparedness is very high,” Haar said. “I am also working with companies on an individual and confidential basis to identify facilities serving critical public safety functions in Minnesota. I am happy to report that these discussions have gone very well.” Advice for the Industry Jerry Rosendahl, director of the emergency management division in the Department of Public Safety, says the security process involves identifying a system’s vulnerabilities, its weakest links, and answering the question ‘What do we do about it?’ “Companies have to look at their continuity of operations plans,” he said. “They need to have off-site storage for important information and a backup person to the backup to the backup.” Rosendahl also recommends that companies include employees in discussions about security. “Employees often know weak spots in a system,” he said, “but they may be reluctant to speak. You don’t want them saying ‘I knew that was going to happen’ after the fact. It’s to your advantage to give them a way to tell you what’s wrong beforehand.” PATRIOT Act: The New Federal Anti-Terrorism Law Part of today’s altered landscape is the new anti-terrorism law, named the USA PATRIOT Act (for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). Much of the law deals with other matters – increased penalties for terrorist acts, data sharing by federal law enforcement with intelligence agencies, giving the attorney general the ability to detain foreigners suspected of terrorism, and so on. Some provisions do greatly impact phone companies, however, as well as Internet and cable TV providers. Those provisions, which will expire at the end of 2005 unless Congress renews them, involve surveillance (wiretapping) and search warrants. In the past, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies needed a court order for each phone they wanted to tap. They also had to get permission in individual states. Now, federal law enforcement can obtain court orders to tap whatever phone, fax, pager or other communications device a targeted suspect might use. The new law allows nationwide jurisdiction for search warrants and electronic surveillance devices and legalizes roving wiretaps that monitor any phone a suspect uses. The new law also allows the tracking of e-mail and Internet connections without a warrant for the first time, though a warrant signed by a judge would be needed to read e-mails. In addition, the law makes it legally clear that companies must provide Internet subscriber information, including the means and source of payment, once a subpoena is presented. The practical affect for telcos is that they will probably conduct more wiretaps because “the law makes it easier to get warrants and court orders,” says Michael Rubin, vice president of government relations for the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Telecom Association. The law doesn’t change the way telcos do wiretaps or add any new technical requirements. “Clearly the intent of the law is to make it easier to track terrorists,” Rubin said. “This is not a problem for the industry. Companies plan to cooperate fully with authorities as long as they’re not asked to do something that’s technically impossible.” More information about the Minnesota Telephone Association can be found online at www.mnta.org.
(c) 2002 Minnesota Telephone Association
Published by the Minnesota Telephone
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