Inspector faults energy regulator for grid security leaks

A federal watchdog on Wednesday blamed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) lax security protocols for a recent leak of secret information.

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) looked into FERC’s practices for securing information after Jon Wellinghoff, a former chairman of the agency, gave The Wall Street Journal detailed information about security vulnerabilities in the nation’s electric grid.

{mosads}“Our review revealed that the commission’s controls, processes and procedures for protecting nonpublic information were severely lacking,” the OIG said in a report.

“Specifically, we found that staff inconsistently handled and shared commission-created analyses that identified vulnerability of the nation’s electric grid without ensuring that the data was adequately evaluated for sensitivity and classification.”

Wellinghoff in 2013 had his staff conduct reviews into grid vulnerabilities. He and others at FERC later shared the information with the private sector and congressional offices.

But despite the obvious sensitivity of the information, FERC never did a formal review to determine whether it should be labeled as classified or sensitive.

“The commission failed to have the material reviewed even though some commission staff referred to the analysis and substation failure simulations as being of ‘national security’ interest,” the OIG said.

Investigators said that Wellinghoff denied that the information he shared was secretive, but other employees and emails disputed this.

The OIG recommended that FERC implement procedures and punishments for sharing sensitive information without authorization.

FERC Chairwoman Cheryl LaFleur said the agency has already learned from the mistakes.

“We agree with the report’s recommendations and have made substantial progress in implementing them,” she said in a statement. “We are focused on learning from this experience and improving our processes going forward.”

Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the former chairwoman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, requested the OIG investigation after the Journal’s reports.

Murkowski, now the panel’s chairwoman, said she found the report “deeply troubling.”

“Not only did the report find inconsistencies between the testimony of former FERC Chairman Wellinghoff and commission officials, but it found that during Wellinghoff’s tenure there was a ‘culture of reluctance to classify certain nonpublic documents,’ ” Murkowski said in a statement.

“The security of our nation’s electric grid is a serious concern and the release of public documents detailing security issues is alarming.”

Murkowski said that she’d consider legislation to improve FERC’s handling of sensitive information.