Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab Missing 67 Computers

**vector7** · February 12th, 2009, 07:11

Nuclear Weapons Lab Missing 67 Computers

The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday the computers were missing and that it was initiating a month long inventory to account for every computer.

AP
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is missing 67 computers, including 13 that were lost or stolen in the past year. Officials say no classified information has been lost.

The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight on Wednesday released a memo dated Feb. 3 from the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration outlining the loss of the computers.

Kevin Roark, a spokesman for Los Alamos, on Wednesday confirmed the computers were missing and said the lab was initiating a monthlong inventory to account for every computer. He said the computers were a cybersecurity issue because they may contain personal information like names and addresses, but they did not contain any classified information.

Thirteen of the missing computers were lost or stolen in the past 12 months, including three computers that were taken from a scientist's home in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 16, and a BlackBerry belonging to another employee was lost "in a sensitive foreign country," according to the memo and an e-mail from a senior lab manager.

The e-mail was also released by the watchdog group.

The theft of the three computers in January triggered the inventory and a review of the lab's policies regarding home use of government computers, Roark said.

Only one of the three computers stolen from the employee's home was authorized for home use, which raised concerns "as to whether we were fully complying with our own policies for offsite computer usage," he said.

Roark said computers with classified information are "kept completely separate from unclassified computing."

"None of these systems constitute a breach of a classified system," he said.

The e-mail from Los Alamos senior manager Stephen Blair to lab co-workers said the missing computers and Blackberry were "garnering a great deal of attention with senior management as well as (nuclear security administration) representatives."

The security administration memo said the "magnitude of exposure and risk to the laboratory is at best unclear as little data on these losses has been collected or pursued given their treatment as property management issues."

The lab, located in Los Alamos, N.M., employs about 10,000 people.

**Ryan Ruck** · February 12th, 2009, 15:51

I heard this on the radio yesterday. Truly unbelievable that LANL continues to operate this way. Perhaps the military needs to come in and take over operations because the DOE can't handle it. It wouldn't be leak-proof but it would probably be an improvement.

**American Patriot** · February 12th, 2009, 16:26

I can neither confirm, nor deny any allegations made against the DOE. However, I will say... security is good there. What isn't good are some of the security personnel. LOL

**American Patriot** · February 12th, 2009, 16:28

Oh yeah, Ryan... no, you really do NOT want the military to "take over" there. Believe me on this one. I know what I'm talking about this time (whether anyone choses to listen to me is their problem

)

**Ryan Ruck** · February 13th, 2009, 05:26

At this point, I think the TSA could come in and do a better job!

**American Patriot** · February 13th, 2009, 14:29

No, they wouldn't.

The problem isn't that computers are missing.

I know for a fact how it works. Same thing here. People in the IT divisions move things, replace things all the time, they gut and change out systems all the time.

They haven't lost the computers. They probably were all given over to DRMO or some other organization for scrape and they lost track.

**Ryan Ruck** · February 13th, 2009, 15:55

I think you missed the smilie at the end of my post.

**American Patriot** · February 13th, 2009, 16:39

Naw, I got it

I was just saying some facts. It's a fact that you can't really "walk out of a building" with a computer under your arm at that place, or my place. Now, you can walk out with a computer IF 1) no metal detectors are on (they usually arent) 2) security isn't checking bags even randomly (sometimes they dont) or if you have 3) a computer marked "government" and have a letter....

Or in my case, I walk in and out with radio equipment that is personal, even though it is "forbidden". I have a reason, a letter from a gov rep and I'm allowed in support of public safety.

I have no intention, reason or need to walk out with a government computer. I can buy better shit at best buy

**vector7** · February 17th, 2009, 22:46

Military Laptops For Sale on Pakistan's Black Market

By Nathan Hodge

February 13, 2009 | 10:00:31 AMCategories: Agony of A-Stan, Perils of Pakistan

Peshawar, Pakistan, has always had a reputation as a smuggler's paradise, the perfect place to score a 3,000 rupee Kalashnikov knockoff, a rusty Lee-Enfield or a nice block of hash. And as GlobalPost correspondent Shahan Mufti discovered, it's also a place where you can buy some off-the-shelf U.S. military equipment.

Mufti recently paid a visit to the Sitara Market on the city's western edge, and was able to pick up a ruggedized U.S. military laptop for $650. The laptop, which looks like it is part of a vehicle diagnostics kit, came with clear U.S. military markings. According to the story, the laptop also stored "identities of numerous military personnel and information about weaknesses and flaws in American military vehicles being employed in the war in Afghanistan."

Peshawar is just down the road from the Khyber Pass, which has become a crucial bottleneck for supplying U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. In December, militants torched over 100 trucks at a supply depot in Peshawar; earlier this month, militants blew a bridge along the route. A Pentagon spokesman told GlobalPost that the supply line from Karachi to the Khyber Pass had seen “a fairly constant amount of pilferage or losses” as trucks driven by civilian contractors are attacked or looted, although he added that computers with sensitive information are typically not trucked through Pakistan.

It's not clear whether the laptop obtained by GlobalPost has any actual classified data stored on it -- but it certainly looks like sensitive information has the potential to fall in the wrong hands. Precarious security on the Khyber Pass route is one of the reasons the U.S. and NATO are looking for alternate ways to resupply Afghanistan.

This story, incidentally, is a nice scoop for GlobalPost, the recently launched Web-based international news service. GlobalPost was founded in response to diminishing international news coverage; this story, one hopes, is a good example of the kind of reporting their network of correspondents will deliver.

[PHOTO: Pelican Military Cases]