WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior Department will go back online after an appeals court Wednesday blocked a judge's ruling that ordered most of the department's computers disconnected from the Internet.
It took the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit just three hours to grant the government's request to restore the Interior's Internet access. It had been shut down since March 15 to protect money owed to American Indians from hackers.
The shutdown disrupted public's access to Interior Department Web pages, landmanagers' communications,
disbursement of mineral royalties to states and education of children in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools.