Frontier bungles redaction of network audit that it doesn’t want you to see
Blacked-out text is readable, revealing 952,000 potential network problems. …
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Frontier Communications needs a lesson in how to redact documents.
Frontier is trying to hide large portions of an audit report from the public, claiming that details about the ISP’s broadband-network problems are trade secrets. But when Frontier made a redacted version of the report public, many of the blacked-out parts were still readable simply by copying and pasting from the document.
The Frontier-edited version of the 164-page report, which was ordered by the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) and written by a consultant firm, includes about 80 redacted exhibits and many pages that have been fully or partially blacked out. Frontier seems to have successfully redacted the exhibits, including many charts, but the blacked-out text is easy to lift. (Update: It turns out some of the exhibits weren’t properly redacted, either.)
For example, one redacted sentence says that “Frontier WV’s copper network has at least 952,163 connection points that are susceptible to moisture, corrosion, loose connections, etc. that may cause interruptions of service to customers.” That “952,163” number was blacked out, but it’s still readable if you copy it from the document. We’ve uploaded the document to our server in case it gets taken down from the PSC website—you can view it here.
Describing the connection points, the report says, “Any electrically connected circuit has numerous points where connections are made. As systems and networks age, all of the connection points have the potential to cause service interruptions.” The 952,163 connection points include 376,897
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