US Interior Dept Net closed
p2pnet.net News:- For the third time, the US Interior Department has been ordered to shut down its Internet connections after a judge found it still hadn’t fixed computer security problems that could jeopardize millions of dollars in royalties for 300,000 American Indian landowners.
“The interest of the 300,000-plus current beneficiaries of the individual Indian trust outweigh the potential inconvenience of those parties that would otherwise have access to Interior’s Internet services,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote, says an Associated Press story here.
The department was assigned in 1887 to manage royalties from lands held in trust for the Indians, but over time, the lands were poorly managed and money was squandered, stolen or never collected, says AP, adding:
“The Indians sued in 1996, demanding an accounting that had been ordered by Congress two years earlier. In 1999, Lamberth said the department must account for the money and repair its management flaws.
“Since then, however, the case has bogged down in court fights and congressional maneuvering. Interior insists that just a few million dollars are owed to the Indian landowners. The Indians’ attorneys contend it is likely tens of billions of dollars.”
