Fergie's Tech Blog

Breach at Los Alamos Labs May Have Exposed Classified Data on Nukes

Jaikumar Vijayan writes on ComputerWorld:

Several officials at the company that manages security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) used unprotected e-mail networks earlier this year to share highly classified information related to the characteristics of materials used in nuclear weapons.

The incident occurred on Jan. 19 and was considered so serious that a U.S. Department of Energy official was notified of it in the midst of a White House event.

Now, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wants to know why a subcommittee investigating an October 2006 security breach at LANL was not told about the January compromise.

Dingell last week wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman expressing concern over the failure of the National Nuclear Security Administration to notify the subcommittee of the breach. The NNSA is a semiautonomous body within the DOE that's responsible for supervising the country's nuclear facilities.

posted by Fergie @ 6/19/2007 11:03:00 AM