COVID-19 Exploited by Malicious Cyber Actors (Dallas Police Department)

RE: PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT REQUEST of 4/24/2020, Reference #D009943-042420 COVID-19 NOTICE: As part of the unprecedented response to coronavirus in Texas, and in light of the Governor’s recent disaster declaration, most of the administrative departments of the City of Dallas now are either closed or are staffed by only a skeleton crew, while remaining staff is working remotely or is present but involved directly in the public health or epidemic response. Additionally, the City is unable to access its records to respond to public information requests at this time.  This notice has been posted on the City’s website. D uring the period this notice is posted, the City of Dallas is not considered to be open for business for purposes of the time deadlines under the Texas Public Information Act. If a new request: Your request will be received on the City’s next open business day. Existing requests: Your request is paused and will be set back to processing on the City’s next open business day. Respectfully, Open Records Unit DPD DPD - Open Records “Our Product is Service” Empathy | Ethics | Excellence | Equity

--- Please respond above this line ---

Dear Emma Best:
On April 24, 2020, the Dallas Police Department received your Texas Public Information Act request, for access to To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to CISA Alert AA20-099A, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA, or the CDC alert titled "COVID-19-Related Phone Scams and Phishing Attacks"
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to COVID-19 related phishing attempts, such as those described in the CDC alert, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA and CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to fake CDC emails, such as those described in FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to APT groups using the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their cyber operations, such as those described in CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing, or generated as part of or in response to the assessment that the above activities' "goals and targets are consistent with long-standing priorities such as espionage and “hack-and-leak” operations", as described in CISA Alert AA20-099A

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers in outlets such as Gizmodo, MuckRock, Motherboard, Property of the People, Unicorn Riot, and The Outline, among others. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the library Internet Archive and the journalist non-profit MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.

As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Emma Best

Attachments:

https://cdn.muckrock.com/outbound_composer_attachments/EmmaBest/83130/FBI20Sees20Rise20in20Fraud20Schemes20Related20to20the20Coronavirus20COVID-1920Pande.pdf
https://cdn.muckrock.com/outbound_composer_attachments/EmmaBest/83130/COVID-1920Exploited20by20Malicious20Cyber20Actors207C20CISA.pdf
https://cdn.muckrock.com/outbound_composer_attachments/EmmaBest/83130/COVID-19-Related20Phone20Scams20and20Phishing20Attacks207C20CDC20Online20Newsroom207.pdf
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
The Dallas Police Department has researched this request and the Dallas Police Department does not possess any documents in response to this request. Please contact, Dallas County for all information regarding CDC, Covid 19 and all related to CDC information.
If you need further assistance or have questions pertaining to your request, please contact me by telephone at 214-671-3148.
Sincerely,
Open Records Unit DPD
Dallas Police Department
cc: NAME DEPT CONTACT, DEPT