Sensitive government document found on rainy Ottawa street

A sensitive government document detailing a classified computer database has been given to the CBC after it was found lying on an Ottawa street in a rain-stained, tire-marked brown envelope.

The document is a risk assessment of an Environment Canada classified environmental enforcement database. It details a number of the system's failings and describes exactly how the data could be attacked and corrupted, the CBC's James Cudmore reported.

The so-called NEMISIS database is used by officers to track and prosecute polluters and environmental law-breakers.

The acronym stood for National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System when it was unveiled in 1999. However, the title page of the mislaid document calls it  the National Enforcement and Emergency Management Information System and Intelligence System, adding the words "and Emergency" to the name.

The assessment described in detail exactly how the database could be attacked by industrial hackers and organized crime, as well as environmental activists.

If someone were able to shut the system down, or hack inside and delete or corrupt the information, officers might not be able to prosecute their cases, which would seriously interfere with the enforcement of the law, the risk assessment said.

"NEMISIS is operating at high risk," the analysis determined.

The document — spotted by a passer-by on Castlefrank Road in Ottawa's Kanata area — is marked "Protected B" at the top of each of its 131 pages.

While documents labelled Protected B are not top-secret, they must be handled with special care for security reasons and not left lying around for just anyone to see, said Christian Rouillard, an expert on public administration and associate professor at the University of Ottawa's school of political studies.

'No justification for losing a document'

"It is taken very seriously," Rouillard told CBC News. "There is no justification for losing a document, regardless of its security level, regardless of the classification."

Environment Canada spokeswoman Sujata Raisinghani told CBC News the department will look into the incident.

"We take document security seriously," she said, but refused to give any more details about how the papers came to be on a road.

Although the enforcement database has attracted little public attention, its existence is not a secret.

In a report to Parliament in 1999, Environment Canada said: "A new enforcement tool has been put in place. The National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System (NEMISIS) tracks and manages national enforcement activities for the environmental and wildlife legislation enforced by Environment Canada officers. The system provides accurate and timely statistical information and detailed reports on enforcement efforts."

The database "is being provided to provinces as part of the sharing of enforcement-related information amongst enforcement agencies," it said.