CMUA spokesperson wants public utilities to be exempted from SB 272

Gil Topete, Director for Energy and spokesperson for the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA), which opposed the passage of SB 272 on the grounds that it would make sensitive operational information too accessible to would-be cyber-intruders, said today that his organization would be continuing its opposition and working to modify it even though the bill passed the California Assembly Local Government Committee on a 7-0 vote on July 15^th and now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for further consideration, in order to achieve these goals: (1) Taking public utilities out of the bill entirely; (2) Failing that, not making them display the sensitive data on their web sites; and (3) At least leaving out information identifying a locality’s “enterprise systems”  custodian, which he feels would make it easier to target the system itself with malicious intent.

He strongly believes that the disclosure requirements contained in this bill, authored by California State Senator Robert M. Hertzberg, would increase the potential for abuse.

“We’re just trying to deliver electricity and water to our customers.  Leave us out of it,” Topete said.  Some of the items, he continued “shouldn’t be anybody’s business, and if they are, then they shouldn’t be as easily available as by a single click.”