verizon disclosure exception request

8/3/2019 Verizon disclosure exception request

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140 West Street27

thFloor

New York, NY 10007Tel (212) 321-8126

[email protected]

Joseph A. Post

Deputy General Counsel New York

November 14, 2011

Ms. Donna Giliberto

Records Access Officer

New York State Department of Public ServiceThree Empire State PlazaAlbany, New York 12223

Re: Request for Trade Secret Protection (Case 11-M-0481)

Dear Ms. Giliberto:

Verizon New York Inc. (Verizon) respectfully requests that the three documents

attached to this letter be treated by the Commission and the Department of Public Service as

trade secret information, confidential commercial information, and critical infrastructure

information pursuant to the Article 6 of the Public Officers Law and 16 NYCRR 6-1.3. The

documents are materials requested by Staff in connection with its review of utility response to

Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Specifically, they comprise: (a) a detailed discussion

of the damage inflicted on Verizon network facilities by the two storms; (b) a checklist of

measures taken by Verizon to prepare for major storms; and (c) the Verizon North East Area

Operations Organizations Continuity of Operations Plan for emergency events.

Section 87(2)(d) of the New York Public Officers Law authorizes agencies to deny

access to records that are trade secrets or are submitted to an agency by a commercial enterprise


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Ms. Donna GilibertoNovember 14, 2011

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or derived from information obtained from a commercial enterprise and which if disclosed would

cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the subject enterprise. Section 87(2)(f)

authorizes denial of access to records that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the capacity of . . . an

entity that has shared information with an agency to guarantee the security of its information

technology assets, such assets encompassing . . . infrastructures.

The Commission implements these provisions in 6-1.3 of its Rules of Procedure.1

Part (a) of that section defines a trade secret as including any . . . compilation of information

which is used in ones business, and which provides an opportunity to obtain an advantage over

competitors who do not know or use it. (Emphasis supplied.) It should be noted that the term

trade secret is not limited here to its technical sense in intellectual property law. The factors to

be considered by the Commission in making a determination of trade secret and confidential

commercial information status include, but are not necessarily limited to, factors bearing on

two issues: the difficulty of generating or obtaining the information independently (i.e., other

than from records produced to the Commission), and the value of the information (i.e., to the

extent to which the providing party will be harmed, and the receiving party will be benefited, by

the disclosure of the information in question).

The three attached documents warrant protection under these standards. First, they would

not be publicly available unless they were disclosed through the regulatory process, and the

information that they contain could not be replicated without access to the documents. Second,

the information on the damage sustained by Verizons network could be used by competitors in

an improper attempt to convince customers, misleadingly, of the supposed vulnerability or

1 16 NYCRR 6-1.3.


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Ms. Donna GilibertoNovember 14, 2011

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unreliability of Verizons network and services. Third, the documents disclose details of

Verizons emergency response strategies which could be used in an attempt to undermine those

strategies, thus compromising Verizons ability to avoid or mitigate damage to its network and

endangering critical infrastructure. Withholding such information from public disclosure would

be consistent with the Network Reliability and Interoperability Councils Best Practices and the

Commissions stated interest in ensuring network security and reliability.

At this time, Verizon is providing the requested documents solely to the Records Access

Officer, and solely for the purpose of requesting protection from disclosure. If the requested

protection is denied, Verizon respectfully requests that the Records Access Officer return this

information to Verizon, and it will be made available to Staff at Verizons offices.

Please call Richard Bozsik (518-396-1020) if you have any questions concerning this

request.

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph A. Post

cc: Mr. Chad Hume (without attachment)Mr. Michael Rowley (without attachment)

Mr. Joseph P. Yakel (without attachment)Brian Ossias, Esq. (without attachment)

verizon disclosure exception request

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