Anonymous + general hacktivists 2009-2018 (Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence & Analysis)

June 05, 2019 EmmaBest MuckRock DEPT MR 63916 411A HIGHLAND AVE SOMERVILLE, MA 02144-2516 RE:     CISA Case Number 2019-NPFO-00232 Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) CaseNumber 2019-IAFO-00152 Dear Ms. Best: This acknowledges receipt of aFreedom of Information Act (FOIA) referral to the U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS), Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), related toyour June 04, 2019 FOIA request to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), for documents mentioning or relating to Anonymous (the hacker movement/collective, see below) or hacktivism (defined as hacking as a form of protest and/or activism), including but not limited to:* Internal reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to Anonymous or hacktivism* Reports from the appropriate IT (Information Technology) or computer offices regarding possible cyber attacks by Anonymous or other hacktivists* Reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to or mentioning Anonymous or hacktivism sent to or received from any federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies or any fusion center* Incident reports investigating possible hacking activity falling within the office's jurisdiction and allegedly carried out by members of Anonymous or other hacktivist groups* Materials generated as a result of any suspected or actual compromise, breach or "dox" (revealing of personal or private information) by Anonymous or other hacktivists(Date Range for Record Search: From 1/1/2009 To 1/1/2019), and to your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees. While processing your request, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) determinedthat the records being sought likely fall under the purview of CISA. Accordingly,your request was referred to this office on June 05, 2019 for review anddirect response to you. Dueto the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we mayencounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHSFOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, CISA processes FOIA requests according totheir order of receipt. Although CISA’s goal is to respond within 20 businessdays of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10- day extension ofthis time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that willnecessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, CISA will invoke a 10-dayextension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If youcare to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We willmake every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. Youhave requested a fee waiver.  The DHS FOIA Regulations at 6 CFR § 5.11(k)set forth six factors CISA must evaluate to determine whether theapplicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met:  (1) Whether thesubject of the requested records concerns “the operations or activities of thegovernment,” (2) Whether the disclosure is “likely to contribute” to anunderstanding of government operations or activities, (3) Whether disclosure ofthe requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public atlarge, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requester or a narrowsegment of interested persons, (4) Whether the contribution to publicunderstanding of government operations or activities will be “significant,” (5)Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by therequested disclosure, and (6) Whether the magnitude of any identifiedcommercial interest to the requester is sufficiently large in comparison withthe public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in thecommercial interest of the requester. Uponreview of the subject matter of your request, and an evaluation of the sixfactors identified above, CISA has determined that it will conditionallygrant your request for a fee waiver.  The fee waiver determination will bebased upon a sampling of the responsive documents received from the variousCISA program offices as a result of the searches conducted in response toyour FOIA request.  CISA will, pursuant to DHS regulations applicable tomedia requesters, process the first 100 pages.  If upon review of these documents,CISA determines that the disclosure of the information contained in thosedocuments does not meet the factors permitting CISA to waive the fees,then CISA will at that time either deny your request for a fee waiverentirely, or will allow for a percentage reduction in the amount of the feescorresponding to the amount of relevant material found that meets the factorsallowing for a fee waiver.  In either case, CISA will promptly notifyyou of its final decision regarding your request for a fee waiver and provideyou with the responsive records as required by applicable law. Inthe event that your fee waiver is denied, and you determine that you still wantthe records, provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost ofcomplying with your request.  We shall charge you for records inaccordance with the DHS FOIA regulations as they apply to media requestors.  As a media requester you willbe charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages arefree.  In the event that your fee waiver is denied, we will construe thesubmission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00.  Thisoffice will contact you before accruing any additional fees. We have queried the appropriate programoffices within CISA for responsive records. If any responsive records arelocated, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please beassured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your requestas expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed withyour request. If you have any questions or wish to discuss reformulation or analternative time frame for the processing of your request, please contact FOIAoffice.  You may send an e-mail to CISAFOIA@HQ.DHS.GOV (mailto:CISAFOIA@HQ.DHS.GOV) , call free 703-235-2211 , or you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison in thesame manner.  Additionally, you have a right to seek dispute resolutionservices from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) whichmediates disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as anon-exclusive alternative to litigation.  If you are requesting access toyour own records (which is considered a Privacy Act request), you should knowthat OGIS does not have the authority to handle requests made under the PrivacyAct of 1974.  You may contact OGIS as follows:  Office of GovernmentInformation Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov;telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at202-741-5769. Your request has beenassigned reference number .Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. 2019-NPFO-00232 Tocheck the status of an CISA FOIA request, please visit http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status .Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2019-NPFO-00232 tracking number. Sincerely, CISA FOIA

Ms. Best,

Regarding your request for records concerning the following:

Documents mentioning or relating to Anonymous (the hacker movement/collective, see below) or hacktivism (defined as hacking as a form of protest and/or activism) generated between 1 January 2009 and 1 January 2019, including but not limited to:

* Internal reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to Anonymous or hacktivism
* Reports from the appropriate IT (Information Technology) or computer offices regarding possible cyber attacks by Anonymous or other hacktivists
* Reports, bulletins, warnings and alerts relating to or mentioning Anonymous or hacktivism sent to or received from any federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies or any fusion center
* Incident reports investigating possible hacking activity falling within the office's jurisdiction and allegedly carried out by members of Anonymous or other hacktivist groups
* Materials generated as a result of any suspected or actual compromise, breach or "dox" (revealing of personal or private information) by Anonymous or other hacktivists

This office is in receipt of your request and we request that you provide us with the exact terms that you wish us to search for. The word "anonymous" is too general for a search of our records, especially over a span of 10 years. This term will likely yield an inordinate number of non-responsive records/documents as every instance of this word will be captured during a search.

I am available at the numbers below if you care to discuss the scope of this request.

V/r

Charles Schnepfe
Program Specialist/FOIA Coordinator
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Office: 703-705-6272 Cell: 202-823-3753 E-mail: charles.schnepfe@hq.dhs.gov<mailto:charles.schnepfe@hq.dhs.gov>

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Good Afternoon,
Attached is further correspondence regarding your DHS FOIA request.  If you need to contact this office again concerning your request, please provide the DHS reference number. This will enable us to quickly retrieve the information you are seeking and reduce our response time. This office can be reached at 866-431-0486 or at foia@hq.dhs.gov. (mailto:foia@hq.dhs.gov)
Regards,
DHS Privacy Office
Disclosure & FOIA Program
STOP 0655
Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Drive, SW
Washington, DC 20528-0655
Telephone:  1-866-431-0486 or 202-343-1743
Fax:  202-343-4011
Visit our FOIA website (http://www.dhs.gov/foia)