Chapman v. Chicago Department of Finance

2023 IL 128300IN THE
SUPREME COURT
OF
THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
(Docket No. 128300)
MATT CHAPMAN, Appellee, v. THE CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, Appellant.
Opinion filed May 18, 2023.
JUSTICE HOLDER WHITE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
Chief Justice Theis and Justices Neville, Overstreet, Cunningham, Rochford,
and O’Brien concurred in the judgment and opinion.
OPINION
¶1 Plaintiff, Matt Chapman, filed a request pursuant to the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq. (West 2018)), seeking certain information
utilized by defendant, the Chicago Department of Finance. Defendant denied the
request, identifying the requested information as exempt from disclosure under
section 7(1)(o) of FOIA. Id. § 7(1)(o).
¶2 Plaintiff filed a complaint, alleging defendant violated FOIA by failing to
disclose the records and asking the Cook County circuit court to order their
production. The court agreed with plaintiff and ordered defendant to produce the
records. The First District affirmed. 2022 IL App (1st) 200547, ¶ 1.
¶3 Now on appeal, defendant argues (1) section 7(1)(o) of FOIA expressly
exempts the requested records from disclosure and (2) it demonstrated clear and
convincing evidence that disclosure would jeopardize the security of its system. We
reverse and remand with directions.
¶4 BACKGROUND
¶5 In August 2018, plaintiff submitted a FOIA request to defendant for certain
records pertaining to the Citation Administration and Adjudication System
(CANVAS), developed by IBM for the City of Chicago in 2002 for the enforcement
of parking, red-light, and speed-camera tickets. After a ticket has been issued, it is
loaded into the CANVAS system, which defendant uses to issue notices and for
payment purposes.
¶6 Specifically, plaintiff sought an “index of the tables and columns within each
table of CANVAS” and asked for the “column data type as well.” Further,
plaintiff’s request stated the following:
“Per the CANVAS specification, the database in question is Oracle, so the
below SQL query will likely yield the records pursuant to this request:
select utc.column_name as colname, uo.object_name as tablename,
utc.data_type
from user_objects uo
join user_tab_columns utc on uo.object_name = utc.table_name where
uo.object_type = ‘TABLE’ ”
Plaintiff indicated the requested documents would be made available to the general
public and that the request was not being made for commercial purposes.
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¶7 Defendant denied the request, stating the records were exempt from disclosure
pursuant to section 7(1)(o) of FOIA (5 ILCS 140/7(1)(o) (West 2018)). Section
7(1)(o) exempts the following:
“Administrative or technical information associated with automated data
processing operations, including but not limited to software, operating
protocols, computer program abstracts, file layouts, source listings, object
modules, load modules, user guides, documentation pertaining to all logical and
physical design of computerized systems, employee manuals, and any other
information that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the system or its
data or the security of materials exempt under this Section.” Id.Defendant stated the request for a copy of tables or columns within each table of
CANVAS could, if disseminated, jeopardize the security of the systems of the City
of Chicago.
¶8 In November 2018, plaintiff filed suit, alleging his request concerned
nonexempt public records and defendant had willfully and intentionally violated
FOIA by failing to produce the requested records. Thereafter, plaintiff filed a
motion for partial summary judgment, and defendant filed a cross-motion for
summary judgment.
¶9 In its cross-motion, defendant argued plaintiff’s broad and open-ended request
would “provide a detailed roadmap of the entire CANVAS system to the public”
and, if released, “would not only provide information about how the CANVAS
system was designed but would also facilitate cyber-attacks.” The circuit court
denied both motions.
¶ 10 In January 2020, the circuit court held a trial on plaintiff’s complaint. Before
the trial began, defendant argued the information plaintiff requested constituted a
“file layout” or “source listing,” both of which are expressly exempt from
disclosure under section 7(1)(o) without regard to whether disclosure would
jeopardize the security of the system. The court disagreed “as a matter of law,”
stating the phrase “if disclosed[,] would jeopardize [the] security of the system or
its data or the security of the material[s] exempt under this [S]ection,” qualifies
every term that precedes it, including “file layouts” and “source listings.” Thus, the
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only issue for trial was whether disclosure of the information would jeopardize the
security of the system.
¶ 11 On defendant’s behalf, Bruce Coffing testified he was the chief information
security officer for the City of Chicago. He indicated his familiarity with the
CANVAS system, which contains sensitive information pertinent to constituents
who have received tickets relating to parking, speed-light cameras, red-light
cameras, booting, and towing. Coffing stated that information includes, among
other things, first and last names of the primary and secondary vehicle owners,
driver’s license numbers, addresses, handicap-parking status, the ticket issuer, and
payment method.
¶ 12 Coffing testified he is responsible for protecting the CANVAS system from
cyberattacks. One of the ways to defend against such attacks includes limiting the
information known about a system, so that hackers have to be “more noisy” when
attempting an attack and thereby alerting security defenses that an attack is
underway. If an attack is conducted by someone with knowledge of the system,
“their activity may blend in and look like normal activity in the system.” Coffing
stated releasing the requested information would undermine the layer defense
strategy by “providing more information for a threat actor to perform
[reconnaissance] again to more precisely tailor their attack.”
¶ 13 Coffing testified that plaintiff’s request concerned file layouts and source
listings. He stated file layouts include “table names and column names,” which is
“the information that the database management system uses to create the structure
of the database.” “Source listings” include instructions to “the database
management system on how to do something to setup the database, the tables, the
columns within each of those tables and the data types that those columns
represent.”
¶ 14 Coffing stated that, if a threat actor knew the file layouts or source listings, he
or she could use that knowledge to “perform [reconnaissance] on a target or a
system and in this case would use this information to more precisely craft their
attacks, again to limit the noise that they would make to limit the likelihood of them
being detected.”
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¶ 15 Coffing also testified releasing the information requested by plaintiff could
facilitate a type of attack known as a structured query language (SQL) injection,
which would force the system to do something it is not designed to do. In such an
instance, the injection acts as “a window into the system and then it uses this
vulnerability to attempt to make the system do something that the threat actor wants
the system to do.” Coffing stated an SQL injection could be used against the
CANVAS system to gain access and modify information, such as payment on a
ticket, or delete data to make the system unusable.
¶ 16 On cross-examination, Coffing acknowledged plaintiff’s FOIA request did not
seek actual data, such as a person’s driver’s license number, but instead sought a
listing of the tables in the CANVAS database and the fields and columns within
those tables. However, Coffing explained that disclosure of the requested records
would “disclose how the database management system constructs the database that
contains the data used, stored and processed by the CANVAS system.”
¶ 17 When asked by the circuit court to assume the general public knows what
information is being collected, e.g., first and last names, citation number, vehicle
information, and date and type of citations, Coffing testified that knowing the
specific field name could allow someone to precisely craft an attack to make less
noise and go undetected. For example, Coffing stated a field name could be “L
underscore name” or “last underscore name,” but not knowing which one could
lead to inaccurate guesses and thereby alert the system that a threat actor is in the
environment.
¶ 18 In plaintiff’s case, Thomas Ptacek testified he worked in the field of information
and software security. Describing himself as a “vulnerability researcher,” he
acknowledged he hacks systems for a living. Ptacek understood plaintiff’s FOIA
request as seeking “the schema of the database that backs the CANVAS application,
the tables and the columns of those tables.”
¶ 19 Ptacek described “schema” as a term of art referring to “all of the fields and the
databases that sit behind these applications,” According to Ptacek, “schema
information would be of marginal value to an attacker.” Moreover, disclosing the
requested records would not produce the source code for the CANVAS system,
which would provide a collection of instructions that tells the CANVAS application
how to function.
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¶ 20 Ptacek could not think of a way in which publicly “disclosing the schema would
jeopardize the security” of a system or make it easier to carry out an SQL injection
attack. Instead, he stated one of the first things he would get from an SQL injection
attack would be the schema itself. Ptacek did testify that, if a hacker breached a
database, knowledge of the schema would be “of value in that it would allow [the
hacker] to select” the application to target. However, he stated that, if the schema
is publicly available, it is not considered a vulnerability to the system. He stated
“schemas are not file layouts” or source listings.
¶ 21 On cross-examination, Ptacek testified he has never worked with the CANVAS
system and he did not know the source code, architecture, or security configurations
of the system. He stated that having the schema has some value to the hacker in
helping to plan for an attack. For example, if Ptacek wanted to target Social Security
numbers, having the schema would help “isolate the systems” that contained Social
Security information so he would not “have to take the time to attack lots of other
applications.” But he stated knowing the schema would not prevent noise during a
hacking attempt, as opposed to knowing the source code, which would help him be
“substantially less noisy.”
¶ 22 Following closing arguments, the circuit court found defendant had not met its
burden of proof under section 7(1)(o) of FOIA. The court found persuasive Ptacek’s
testimony that knowledge of the schema would not in any way provide a threat
actor an advantage in attacking a system like CANVAS. The court entered
judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendant. The court also ordered
defendant to produce the requested records by February 10, 2020. Following
defendant’s posttrial motion, the court stayed its order to produce the requested
records pending the outcome of an appeal.
¶ 23 On appeal, defendant made no argument that the requested information
constituted a “source listing.” Instead, defendant maintained the requested
information was exempt from disclosure because it constituted a “ ‘file layout’ ”
and its dissemination “ ‘would jeopardize’ ” the security of the CANVAS system
and database. 2022 IL App (1st) 200547, ¶ 1. The First District disagreed and
affirmed. First, without determining whether the information plaintiff requested
was a “ ‘file layout’ ” or “ ‘any other information,’ ” the court found that, under the
plain language of section 7(1)(o), the reasonable meaning of “ ‘if disclosed, would
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jeopardize’ ” applies to every item listed, not only to the catchall phrase of “ ‘and
any other information.’ ” Id. ¶ 32. Second, the First District found the circuit court’s
finding that defendant failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that
the exemption from disclosure provided in section 7(1)(o) applied to plaintiff’s
FOIA request was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Id. ¶ 38. Thus,
the court held defendant must provide the information plaintiff requested because
the information was not exempt from disclosure under section 7(1)(o) of FOIA. Id.
¶ 42.
¶ 24 In March 2022, defendant petitioned this court for leave to appeal, and we
allowed that petition. Ill. S. Ct. R. 315 (eff. Oct. 1, 2021).
¶ 25 ANALYSIS
¶ 26 Defendant raises two issues on appeal. First, defendant argues the plain
language of section 7(1)(o) of FOIA expressly exempts the records plaintiff
requested from disclosure. Second, defendant argues that section 7(1)(o) requires a
public body to show only a possibility of harm to a data system’s security and that
it showed that disclosure of the requested records would jeopardize CANVAS’s
security.
¶ 27 I. Standard of Review
¶ 28 The first issue requires us to construe section 7(1)(o) of FOIA. Issues of
statutory interpretation are reviewed de novo. Rushton v. Department of
Corrections, 2019 IL 124552, ¶ 13. “ ‘The fundamental rule of statutory
interpretation is to ascertain and give effect to the legislature’s intent, and the best
indicator of that intent is the statutory language, given its plain and ordinary
meaning.’ ” International Ass’n of Fire Fighters, Local 50 v. City of Peoria, 2022
IL 127040, ¶ 12 (quoting Dew-Becker v. Wu, 2020 IL 124472, ¶ 12). In interpreting
a statute, this “court may consider the reason for the law, the problems sought to be
remedied, the purposes to be achieved, and the consequences of construing the
statute one way or another.” In re Appointment of Special Prosecutor, 2019 IL
122949, ¶ 23.
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¶ 29 A statute must be viewed as a whole, and “this court construes words and
phrases not in isolation but relative to other pertinent statutory provisions.” In re
Julie M., 2021 IL 125768, ¶ 27. Moreover, statutory provisions should be read so
that no term is rendered superfluous or meaningless. Id. “When the plain language
of the statute is clear and unambiguous, the legislative intent that is discernible from
this language must prevail, and no resort to other interpretative aids is necessary.”
In re Marriage of Kates, 198 Ill. 2d 156, 163 (2001).
¶ 30 II. The Public Policy Behind FOIA
¶ 31 In conducting our review, we are mindful that, pursuant to FOIA, “public
records are presumed to be open and accessible.” Illinois Education Ass’n v. Illinois
State Board of Education, 204 Ill. 2d 456, 462 (2003) (citing Lieber v. Board of
Trustees of Southern Illinois University, 176 Ill. 2d 401, 407 (1997)). Section 1 of
FOIA prescribes the public policy of Illinois and legislative intent of FOIA. 5 ILCS
140/1 (West 2018). Section 1 states, in part, as follows:
“The General Assembly hereby declares that it is the public policy of the
State of Illinois that access by all persons to public records promotes the
transparency and accountability of public bodies at all levels of government. It
is a fundamental obligation of government to operate openly and provide public
records as expediently and efficiently as possible in compliance with this Act.
This Act is not intended to cause an unwarranted invasion of personal
privacy, nor to allow the requests of a commercial enterprise to unduly burden
public resources, or to disrupt the duly-undertaken work of any public body
independent of the fulfillment of any of the fore-mentioned rights of the people
to access to information.” Id.¶ 32 “All records in the custody or possession of a public body are presumed to be
open to inspection or copying.” Id. § 1.2. A public body must comply with a proper
request for information unless one of the statutory exemptions in section 7 applies.
Lieber, 176 Ill. 2d at 407. This court has noted these “exemptions ‘are to be read
narrowly.’ ” Mancini Law Group, P.C. v. Schaumburg Police Department, 2021 IL
126675, ¶ 16 (quoting Lieber, 176 Ill. 2d at 407). “In the event a public body asserts
that a record is exempt from such disclosure, the public body bears the burden of
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proving by clear and convincing evidence that the record is exempt.” Id.; 5 ILCS
140/1.2 (West 2018).
¶ 33 III. Section 7(1)(o) and File Layouts
¶ 34 Section 7 of FOIA sets forth a series of exemptions to disclosure and provides,
in relevant part:
“(1) When a request is made to inspect or copy a public record that contains
information that is exempt from disclosure under this Section, but also contains
information that is not exempt from disclosure, the public body may elect to
redact the information that is exempt. The public body shall make the remaining
information available for inspection and copying. Subject to this requirement,
the following shall be exempt from inspection and copying:
***
(o) Administrative or technical information associated with automated
data processing operations, including but not limited to software, operating
protocols, computer program abstracts, file layouts, source listings, object
modules, load modules, user guides, documentation pertaining to all logical
and physical design of computerized systems, employee manuals, and any
other information that, if disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the
system or its data or the security of materials exempt under this Section.” 5
ILCS 140/7(1)(o) (West 2018).
¶ 35 Defendant argues the plain language of section 7(1)(o) establishes a per se
exemption for file layouts. We agree.
¶ 36 We begin by noting this court has found a per se rule applies to most of the
exemptions set forth in section 7. Mancini, 2021 IL 126675, ¶ 30. Thus, “[w]here
the public body claims that a requested document falls within one of these
specifically enumerated categories and is able to prove that claim, no further inquiry
by the court is necessary.” Lieber, 176 Ill. 2d at 408.
¶ 37 The exemption at issue in section 7(1)(o) is narrow in its focus—dealing with
administrative or technical information associated with automated data processing
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operations. The statute specifically lists 10 items that are included within that focus,
including file layouts. While the phrase “including but not limited to” indicates the
list that follows is illustrative and not exhaustive (People v. Perry, 224 Ill. 2d 312,
328 (2007)), the inclusion of these 10 specific items evinces the legislature’s intent
that they be expressly exempt from disclosure, i.e., the harm that would follow from
disclosure of the listed items is presumed. Had the General Assembly intended to
require the government agency to show disclosure of information would jeopardize
the security of its system, the list of specific items would have been unnecessary.
¶ 38 In addition to listing the specific categories of information that are exempt, the
legislature also included the catchall category of “any other information that, if
disclosed, would jeopardize the security of the system or its data or the security of
materials exempt under this Section.” 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(o) (West 2018). The catchall
phrase simply shows the legislature understood it could not specifically list every
item that might fall within the exemption’s scope and allowed for the protection of
the system should it be proved that disclosure of a nonlisted item, i.e., any other
information, would jeopardize its security. See People v. Newton, 2018 IL 122958,
¶ 17 (finding the statutory catchall showed the legislature’s recognition that it
would not be possible to specifically list all places used primarily for religious
worship).
¶ 39 In its analysis, the appellate court did not address the entirety of section
7(1)(o)’s exemption. However, a plain reading of the exemption as a whole
confirms our conclusion that file layouts are expressly exempt. The last part of
section 7(1)(o) mentions “materials exempt under this Section,” thereby indicating
the legislature’s intent that the previously listed items are indeed exempt. To find
otherwise would render the phrase “materials exempt under this Section”
superfluous. See Slepicka v. Illinois Department of Public Health, 2014 IL 116927,
¶ 14 (“Each word, clause and sentence of a statute must be given a reasonable
construction, if possible, and should not be rendered superfluous.”).
¶ 40 With the foregoing in mind, the reasonable, commonsense interpretation of
section 7(1)(o) that gives meaning to the listed items, the catchall, and the entire
exemption as a whole leads to the conclusion that file layouts are exempt from
disclosure. While it is true that, under FOIA, public records are presumed to be
open and accessible, the legislature has specifically provided for a narrow
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exemption with respect to administrative or technical information associated with
automated data processing operations. The exemption in section 7(1)(o) is focused
on the security of the government body’s data system, and reading the exemption
to require a hearing to determine whether disclosure would jeopardize the security
of that system every time a file layout is requested would only weaken the specific
exemption.
¶ 41 We note section 5 of FOIA requires a public body to “maintain and make
available for inspection and copying a reasonably current list of all types or
categories of records under its control,” which “shall be reasonably detailed in order
to aid persons in obtaining access to public records pursuant to this Act.” 5 ILCS
140/5 (West 2018). Thus, section 5 provides the public with knowledge of what
records are available and what can be obtained. However, the purpose of FOIA is
not to put the security of the government’s automated data processing operations at
risk of unnecessary harm, and section 7(1)(o) provides a narrow and reasonable
exemption to protect those operations, especially from the harm threatened by
cyberattacks. Accordingly, we hold file layouts are per se exempt from disclosure.
¶ 42 IV. Plaintiff’s Requested Records
¶ 43 Having found that file layouts are expressly exempt from disclosure under
section 7(1)(o) without a showing that disclosure would jeopardize the security of
the system, we need not address defendant’s second issue. Instead, the question
now becomes whether the records requested by plaintiff constitute file layouts.
Plaintiff argues his requested “schema” does not fall within the definition of a file
layout. Defendant, however, suggests dictionary definitions establish the requested
records fall under the exemption. We agree with defendant.
¶ 44 File layouts are not defined in the statute. In such an instance, “this court has
held it is appropriate to refer to a dictionary to ascertain the meaning of otherwise
undefined words or phrases.” Skaperdas v. Country Casualty Insurance Co., 2015
IL 117021, ¶ 18 (citing Lacey v. Village of Palatine, 232 Ill. 2d 349, 363 (2009));
see also Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., 2019 IL 123186, ¶ 32 (stating
this court may consult dictionaries to ascertain the plain and ordinary meaning of
an undefined statutory term).
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¶ 45 In his FOIA request, plaintiff sought an “index of the tables and columns within
each table of CANVAS” and asked for the “column data type as well.” “File layout”
has been defined as the “description of the arrangement of the data in a file.”
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms (6th ed. 2003), available
at https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/file+layout (last visited Apr. 10,
2023) [https://perma.cc/7JRF-MB62]. We find this definition encompasses the
records requested by plaintiff.
¶ 46 Plaintiff, however, argues that the records he requested constituted “database
schema” and not file layouts. “Schema” is defined as “a structured framework or
plan: outline.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/schema (last visited Apr. 11, 2023) [https://perma.cc/
JU96-57T7]. Considering the definitions of both “file layout” and “schema,” we
find a difference in name only. Just as a file layout is the arrangement of data in a
file, a schema is the framework or outline of a database.
¶ 47 As we have found the records requested by plaintiff are file layouts within the
meaning of section 7(1)(o) of FOIA, those records are exempt from disclosure.
Accordingly, the judgments of the circuit court and the appellate court are hereby
reversed. We remand the cause to the circuit court for entry of judgment in favor of
defendant and against plaintiff.
¶ 48 CONCLUSION
¶ 49 For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the judgments of the circuit court and the
appellate court and remand to the circuit court with directions to enter judgment in
favor of defendant.
¶ 50 Judgments reversed.
¶ 51 Cause remanded with directions.
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