Ransomware incidents (El Paso Police Department)

At this time, the City’s Open Records team is working on responding to requests promptly. In light of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), as of March 16, 2020, the City Attorney’s Office and other City Departments will be operating with a skeleton crew. Under the Texas Public Information Act and in accordance with the Texas Attorney General’s guidelines, skeleton crew days are not considered business days when calculating deadlines under the Act. Please see the Attorney General’s website for updates on the calculation of business days in light of COVID-19. The calculation of business days will resume once the City Attorney’s Office resumes normal scheduling. The City Attorney’s Office is currently scheduled for skeleton crew days through September 1, 2021. Notice of changes to this date will be posted on the COEP GovQA website.
Dear Emma North-Best:

Thank you for your interest in public records of the City of El Paso. Your request has been received and is being processed in accordance with Chapter 552 of Texas Government Code, the Public Information Act. Your request was given the reference number W094700-082621 for tracking purposes.
Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:

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

Documents, including but not limited to emails, memos, and incident reports, mentioning or describing any reported or encountered incidents of "ransomware," which may be loosely defined as a type of malware that threatens to permanently encrypt and/or unless a ransom is paid.

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 North-Best

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

Your request will be forwarded to the relevant City department(s) to locate the information you seek and to determine the volume and any costs associated with satisfying your request. You will be contacted about the availability and/or provided with copies of the records in question. PLEASE NOTE: The Texas Public Information Act does not require a governmental body to create new information, to do legal research, or to answer questions.
You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and you'll receive an email when your request has been completed. Again, thank you for using the Public Information Center.
City of El Paso

--- Please respond above this line ---

Good afternoon.
The El Paso Police Department is in receipt of your request referenced above wherein you asked for “Documents, including but not limited to emails, memos, and incident reports, mentioning or describing any reported or encountered incidents of "ransomware." Under the Texas Public Information Act, a governmental body may ask a requestor to clarify a request for information if the request is unclear. Please note that the City has around 6,000 e-mail accounts. You have not told us which e-mail accounts or employee names you need us to search. Searching all 6,000 would be prohibitively expensive, but if you want us to do that, please let us know so we can send you a formal Statement of Estimated Cost.
Depending on your response and clarification, it may be necessary for us to create an invoice detailing an estimate of time and costs. If the estimate exceeds $40.00, then we will notify you in writing. If the estimate exceeds $100, (which it probably will) under section 552.263 of the Texas Government Code, the City will require a deposit of the estimated costs before we begin to process the request. Please be advised that pursuant to Section 552.222 of the Texas Government Code, a request for infonnation is considered withdrawn if you, as a requestor, do not respond in writing to this written request for clarification or additional information within 61 days after that date this request for clarification is sent. Please note that, pursuant to City of Dallas v. Abbott, 304 SW3d 380 (Tex. 2010), when a governmental entity requests clarification or narrowing of an unclear or overbroad request for public information, the ten-day period to request an attorney general opinion as to the applicability of exception to disclosure requirement is measured from the date the request is clarified or narrowed. We look forward to working with you to provide you with the accurate responsive documentation.

Dear Emma North-Best,
In regards to the Open Records Request received on 08/27/2021 requesting records, the records have been in "Requested Clarification" status for 61 days. The City of El Paso considers this request closed. If you would still like the records, please submit another Open Records Request. Thank you for using the Public Information Center. Request Details:
Reference # W094700-082621
Description of Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Documents, including but not limited to emails, memos, and incident reports, mentioning or describing any reported or encountered incidents of "ransomware,"

which may be loosely defined as a type of malware that threatens to permanently encrypt and/or unless a ransom is paid.

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 North-Best

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/