TOPICS
TOPICS
Missing data not a security threat, Los Alamos says
The Los Alamos National Laboratory said that data discovered missing this week posed no security risk, the Associated Press reported Friday.
"This in our view is not a major event and it's certainly not a breach of security," said Kevin Roark, spokesman for the New Mexico facility.
Roark said laboratory employees conducting an inventory of classified information could not locate the data storage device containing classified information. The storage device remained unaccounted for Thursday, and a federal review team is preparing to investigate, he added.
"It's our strong belief [it] was either destroyed or retasked, but the proper paperwork wasn't done to track its destruction or reuse," Roark said.
The laboratory said in a statement that the device was set to be destroyed in March as part of a plan to reduce what is called Classified Removable Electronic Media.
"An extensive laboratory-wide effort to reduce Classified Removable Electronic Media has resulted in a single accounting discrepancy. Based upon an initial review, this discrepancy in no way constitutes a compromise of national security," the statement said.
"The lab can spin it however they want," Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group, told the AP. "Classified data is missing once again from Los Alamos."
Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., issued a statement saying laboratory officials assured him that "the information does not contain nuclear weapons data."
The laboratory stopped work at its Nuclear Nonproliferation Division late last year after nine floppy disks and a large-capacity storage disk believed to contain some classified information were found to be missing.
COMMENTS
- This is the umpteenth time this group has failed to protect secret information in the proper manner. Based on pay-for-performance they all should be fired! I say fire these free-loaders and close the place down. It would save the USA a tremendous amount of money and stop the leaking of nuclear data to our ememies. Stop building the bomb and start building society! Stop subsidies for scientists and math majors and start building housing and providing food for the poor. Government subsidies for these people have diverted far too many bright people onto the public dole and they should be stopped now. They have proven themselves unfit to handle the secrets of the country. tax payer Posted June 2, 2004 6:40 AM
- How can missing CLASSIFIED information not be a security threat?? Why was the data classified to begin with and how come the classified data was not controlled - it is supposed to either in a cleared person's possession or locked in a secure container???? This leaves tons of questions in a secure facilities' ability to handle sensitive data and since this is not the first incident - red lights should be flashing - - and action being taken!!!!!!! GovExec.com reader Posted May 26, 2004 9:08 AM
- What we have here is a cover up. They admit they haven't fixed the last loss of classified information and now they have another one. You can believe there is nothing wrong but I don't. Poor management getting away with losing nuclear secrets, how dumb can we be if chose to believe these people. GovExec.com reader Posted May 24, 2004 7:16 AM
