We are a persistent bunch here at the ‘Grok:
Good morning,
We, as taxpayers in the State of NH, are requesting certain electronic records concerning the outbound Internet traffic emanating from the State of NH’s computer network.
Please review the following RSA 91-A request; we stand ready to work with you concerning this issue. Please find a copy of the request below as well as two attachments (the same request, in Microsoft WORD and OpenOffice formats)
Kindest Regards,
-Skip
David “Skip” Murphy for myself, Steve Mac Donald, and Ed Naile (citizens of the State of New Hampshire)
**********
Right to Know Request
as per
RSA 91-A
April 20, 2012
To: Stanley “Bill” Rodgers, Commissioner and CIO, Department of Information Technology, State of NH
Thomas S. Burack, C, Department of Environmental Services, State of NH
In light of the final response of April 19th concerning our first Right To Know request (re: political postings by State Employee Richard de Seve during regularly scheduled work hours contra to the policies of both the Department of Environmental Services (“DES”) and the Department of Information Technology (“DoIT”) filed on March 11, 2012), we are making the following RSA 91-A request.
As noted in that final response:
When a user enters a URL or IP address for a particular web page, the outbound request passes through the state’s internal network until it reaches the internal firewall. There, the request is routed through DOIT’s web filtering software. That software categorizes web sites based on historical content. Agencies establish filter policies that determine which categories are accessible or blocked. Based on a user’s login information, the software is able to associate a user with his or her IP address and based on the policy assigned to that user, determines whether the requested page is allowed or blocked. If allowed, the software permits the requested web page to be sent from the requested server to the user for viewing. The date, time, and destination of the outgoing request, as well as all IP information sent to the user from the destination web page, are recorded by the web filtering software. The actual content of what was either sent or received is not recorded.
We hereby request,
… in electronic digital form (in order to minimize time and cost on behalf of DES and DoIT), those records bolded in the above paragraph and to which the State has now admitted to possessing. Further, we also request the file / record layout description of the resulting file (fixed or variable field lengths, data types, et al). As computer consultants, our expertise will allow us to examine the data once received (we have several projects in mind for that data).
This request is asking for those records from January 1, 2005 to the present time (i.e., April 20, 2012), inclusive.
We also request that you name a single point of contact who will be in charge of complying with this RSA 91-A request. If possible, we would request Mr. Peter Demas be that person – we established a very good working communications protocol with Mr. Demas that proved to be beneficial to both parties in our last request.
In contrast to our previous request (as some of it was classified to be “of first impression”), it has already been established that these are existing records. Thus, we are not waiving the normal five (5) business day requirement of RSA 91-A in meeting this request. However, given the possible size of the resulting file, we realize that may not be possible to email (even in a “Zipped” or compressed format); we are willing to utilize a File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) methodology in order to download the resulting file from a State internet site. If that option is agreeable, we expect the State to provide us with the necessary temporary credentials to accomplish that download. An alternative method of transfer would be for us to supply a USB storage device (i.e., a “thumb drive”) for that file transfer; we would give permission to the State to scan it for malware.
As we are requesting these records strictly from a data networking / data analysis perspective, we believe there should be no objection based on some notion these records are classified as exempt.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Signed____________________________________
David “Skip” Murphy (9 Gilford Glen Road, Gilford, NH 03249)
Steve Mac Donald (228 Baboosic Lake Road, Merrimack, NH 03054)
Ed Naile (61 Tubbs Road, Deering, NH 03244)
c.c Speaker of the House, the Hon. William O’Brien
c.c Majority Leader, NH House of Representatives, D.J. Bettencourt
c.c NH State Senator Jim Forsythe (member, NH IT Council)
c.c NH State Representative Seth Cohn
c.c NH State Representative Mark Warden
c.c NH State Representative J.R. Hoell
There will be more to come. Tripwire.
Tripped.
