FAA Y2K Report Withheld

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From John Whitley, TB2000 list... FAA Y2K Report Withheld

By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. January 08, 2000

The two leading members of the House Science Committee withheld a key General Accounting Office (GAO) report on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and security lapses to avoid a jaundiced public reaction during the heady days preceding the Year 2000 date change.

Science Committee Spokesman Jeff Lungren told Newsbytes that Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Ranking Democrat Ralph Hall, D-Texas, did not suppress the report, as was reported by the Associated Press and a Milwaukee newspaper. Instead, he said, they opted to send a draft version of the report to the White House before releasing the report within the required 30 days of its reception in the Science Committee.

The report is scheduled for release Tuesday, but Lungren would not provide specifics. He said that Sensenbrenner still must approve the release, but is unavailable because he currently is in Taiwan. Hall also must give his approval, but also is not in Washington, D.C., at the moment.

White House officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment, though Sensenbrenner reportedly told White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger that the option to release the GAO report was Berger's.

Lungren confirmed Sensenbrenner's statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the GAO report shows that security lapses were committed at the FAA during its attempts to reach Year 2000 compliance.

He said the report shows that some of the outside contractors brought in to correct Year 2000 problems did not possess the proper clearance. In addition, he said, the report raised other security issues that were "larger than just Y2K."

These issues currently remain undisclosed, though Lungren said that no one has discovered any security "compromises" despite the fact that the stage apparently was set for them.

Lungren also said that releasing the report in the midst of uncertainty and concern about unexpected consequences of the Year 2000 problem could have produced an adverse public reaction.

"Sometimes in the public discourse... there was some anxiety with the Y2K issue, and sometimes things can be taken out of context," he said.

As Newsbytes reported, the FAA's Year 2000 preparations were largely successful, with Administrator Jane Garvey, Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and White House Year 2000 point man John Koskinen all taking commercial flights during crucial date change times on Dec. 31, 1999.

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 08, 2000

-- Sheri Nakken (wncy2k@nccn.net), January 08, 2000

Answers

SOURCE: The General Accounting Office audits performance of government agencies for the Congress. The main link below is the GAO's page on Y2K testimony and reports. All on line GAO reports can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat reader (but when printing a page range including a large graphic I often get trash from there on). Reader is free (see links at the top of that GAO page), and when reports are new this is often the only on-line option. Later reports are also on-line in text. From http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/ordtab.pl or via 202-512-6000 reports can be ordered by mail for free. Beyond one copy costs $2 each. Also one can subscribe to email notification or watch the GAO's usenet news postings.

INFO RELATED TO STORY: From http://www.gao.gov/y2kr.htm >Edit >Find "FAA".

MOST RECENT REPORT: Below is the most recent GAO report on the FAA at this time (2000-01- 09). It is on-line in Adobe Acrobat PDF and in text format. About the only thing it says on security is that the FAA was surveying 500 airports on their Y2K readiness regarding security, and that the survey would still be in progress at the end of 1999.

Year 2000 Computing Challenge: FAA Continues to Make Important Strides, But Vulnerabilities Remain. GAO/T-AIMD-99-285 September 9.

MOST RELATED REPORT: I believe I have read the below report. My recollection is that there was concern expressed that the FAA might allow persons without proper security clearances access to software or facilities that are critical to the public safety in order to meet its critical deadlines. Note that this report is more than a year old.

FAA Systems: Serious Challenges Remain in Resolving Year 2000 and Computer Security Problems. GAO/T-AIMD-98-251. August 6.

Tim McCully Researching Y2K since 1997 http://www.concentric.net/~2000fact

-- Tim McCully (2000fact@concentric.net), January 09, 2000.


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