Washington : The US Energy Department released a study Friday indicating concerns about the cyber and physical security of its weekly petroleum status report.
The analysis from consultant Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which was dated September 8, recommended creation of a new position of information security officer to oversee improvements in the way the data are collected and disseminated.
The Energy Information Administration, the department's statistical arm, changed the web addresses for information in its weekly petroleum and natural gas reports on February 22. Now the data are kept on a separate server, which gives greater security, said Jonathan Cogan, an EIA spokesman in Washington.
"There are some observations on security and in fact we've made changes," Stephen Harvey, head of the office of oil and gas at the EIA, said in a phone interview. "That gives us a lot of confidence."
The study pointed to three additional areas of concern. Some of the statistical methodologies haven't been reviewed in more than 30 years and are outdated. There's too little documentation about the process and decisions taken, according to the study. Finally, there's insufficient staffing and resources being provided to produce the weekly report.
"What SAIC found when I asked them to do this was a whole bunch of recommendations on what to do under sort of the umbrella statement that the report is not broken," Harvey said.
"It's been very helpful in helping us focus on the things we need to do as we move forward."
