20 desk top pcs go missing 14 contain atomic secrets

[donsu]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/washington/01missing.html?ei=5070&en=26640c8a671f6a96&ex=1176091200&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1175454304-GwIWKpsAkUVp9y24stgULA

Inspector Lists Computers With Atomic Secrets as Missing


The office in charge of protecting American technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop computers, at least 14 of which have been used for classified information, the Energy Department inspector general reported on Friday.

This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found that the department, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs.

Aside from the computers it cannot find, the department is also using computers not listed in its inventory, and one computer listed as destroyed was in fact being used, the audit said.
-snip-
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we are on borrowed time

[flyarm]

1. YEAH..THOSE RETHUG KEEP KEEPING US SAFE ON NATIONAL SECURITY!!

NOT!

FLY

[flyarm]

2. THIS NEEDS KICKING AND R!! AND I AM FIRST!! EOM

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Look, it isn't that bad guys out there are going to learn anything new from these computers.

This is the cover-up for someone SELLING that same info to the bad guys.

Then when the info turns up where it should not the theft can be blamed and no one is the wiser for the sale.

[mopinko]

4. ding, ding, ding

we have a winner.

[Richard Steele]

8. Probably correct. What other offices this size "lose" so many computers?

And, what type of SECURITY PROTOCOLS do those offices use?
Is it the "security" like an office charged with protecting
top-secret National security data uses? (or SHOULD BE using,
I should say)

And how many of those offices CONTINUE "losing" multiple computers
after the first time? Or the second? The THIRD?

[butterfly77]

22. Correct, I have been posting about ....

these missing computers for a long time now and every few months it happens again...

[Robbien]

5. The headline is truely funny until you realize it is not a joke

atomic secrets are missing and GOPers say oh well

whadda world

[progressoid]

6. The Clenis strikes again!!

[Richard Steele]

9. No, no, no....the Clenis only steals "W" keys, not entire computers!

:sarcasm:

[petunia.here]

7. *deep sigh* K&R nm

[kineneb]

10. watch out for street vendors selling "hot" desktop PCs!

"Hey, buddy, wanna' buy a cheap computer?"

Come on, security people, desktop (box-type) computers? Not even laptops? Sheeesh.

[LiberalFighter]

13. They must had taken them out the Johnny Cash way

[Faux pas]

11. I'm sure Iran or China or N. Korea's got 'em. Better get the

bombers in the air STAT! :sarcasm: Terra,terra, terra....sounds like a good distraction tactic from the minds of the pugs.

[KitSileya]

12. Ok, no government could be this incompetent by accident.

There's no way. From 9/11 onwards, there's been such a huge number of such incidents it boggles the mind, and there's no way a government could keep on letting these things happent through incompetence. I refuse to believe it - the only exlanation is that they're letting these things happen. They have their own nefarious purposes, and they do these things because it suits their plans.

[Morgana LaFey]

19. Thank you. Wish more DUers would get to that point.

There's a lot going on "accidentally on purpose" under cover of "incompetence," and this administration is getting away with it.

[KitSileya]

25. Any normal government would be frantically trying to stp these things from happening

The first time they lost computers with sensitive information, if it was an accident, they would have instituted rules and regulations that were to be followed. This is what, the 4th time something like this has happened? They should have done something about it. If htey haven't, it's because they don't want to.

This administration isn't nearly as incompetent as their official actions would have them. It is of gain to them to behave in this manner, and that gain is larger than the public humiliation. That is a scary thought.

[jmowreader]

14. How we used to do business

In the old days (pre-Bush), if you had a desktop computer that processed classified materials, you handled it in one of two ways:

The first way was if your computer had a fixed hard drive in it. These computers could only be used in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs. Basically a vault, a SCIF uses multiple layers of security--two different locking systems, a locking system plus a human guard, armed guards plus double-strand fences with barbed wire on top of them--to defend the information stored therein. Every SCIF is different so the security protocols in place are different for every SCIF...but basically, you had to be able to lock the whole area up to the standard the government sets for that level of information. SCIFs are like Roach Motels: once something goes in, it doesn't come out. Or, at least, it's not supposed to.

The other way was if your computer had either a removable drive (the two big ones I dealt with were the shitty SyQuest 5MB cartridge and the even worse Bernoulli Box, and the government bought so many of both that it funded the manufacturers' efforts to build drives that actually worked) or no hard drive at all. With these, you handled the cartridge/floppy disk like any other classified document; you put a classification sticker on it and stored it in your safe.

We really didn't worry too much about mainframe drives--a CDC disk pack in its carrier is about the size of a cake keeper, and if you can sneak one of THOSE past the guards you're a badass and no one will fuck with you.

But I'm sitting here mentally flipping through AR 380-5 (US Army Information Security Program) thinking "how the HELL are these people doing this shit?"

[HCE SuiGeneris]

15. Now that is what I call responsible government!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :grr: :grr:

[TexasLawyer]

16. Heck of a job, Bushie!

[Initech]

17. Boy, I really feel safer knowning that nuclear secrets are out there! Thanks, Bush!

:sarcasm:

[Rex]

18. No surprise. This Administration is hellbent on destroying America

before they get kicked out on their asses.

[DaveJ]

20. They can't find the computers... they're not necessarily stolen

My guess is when they did inventory they had to count thousands and just missed a few.

[onecent]

21. Ya can't make shit like this up....Computers may be the downfall. n/t

[frazzledmom]

23. ?? Computers may be the downfall?

Uh a computer is a tool, a piece of hardware. It's not the computer but the person using it. Or in this case the person who should be securing it.

[Jokinomx]

24. k & r --------- n/t

[krispos42]

26. Incompetence is more dangerous than any external enemy

Civilizations have know this for millenia, yet it KEEPS HAPPENING!!!!

:banghead:

Maybe God did create us on the 6th day, 'cuz it looks like evolution is on hold!

[smiley_glad_hands]

27. Why cant they put those damn RFID Chips on them? eom