US Nuclear Weapons Lab Loses 67 Computers 185
pnorth writes "Officials from New Mexico's Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory have confessed that 67 of its computers are missing, with no less than 13 of them having disappeared over the past year alone. A memo [PDF] leaked by the Project on Government Oversight watchdog brought the lost nuclear laptops to the public's attention, but the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration dismissed fears the computers contained highly-sensitive or classified information, noting it was more likely to cause 'cybersecurity issues.' Three of the 13 computers which went missing in the past year were stolen from a scientist's home on January 16 and the memo also mentioned a BlackBerry belonging to another staff member had been lost 'in a sensitive foreign country.' The labs faced similar issues back in 2003 when 22 laptops were designated as being 'unlocated.'"
Re:I just wonder one thing (Score:5, Informative)
Morale at the lab was so bad (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Morale at the lab was so bad (Score:3, Informative)
They still do:
http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
And morale is even worse these days. Bechel has been a disaster since they took over the contract for LANL.
Re:This doesn't jive (Score:3, Informative)
All three were stolen on the same date (January 16th), but as the article points out, the more disturbing fact is that only one of the three was authorized for home use.
Stop Saying, "Government"! (Score:4, Informative)
You are retarded if you buy into this article. (Score:1, Informative)
This article is a ridiculous slander piece motivated by a watchdog group that hates nuclear weapons and misrepresents the truth. I like how it's written in an Australian Information Technology site. They must know a lot about Los Alamos since they are on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.
I have worked for similar labs in the past. The computers that "disappeared" were unclassified computers. This is equivalent to a university student losing his laptop.
Notice at the end of the "article" how it says one of the computers stolen was "even authorised for home use"? That's because, again, it only contained unclassified information. And in case you are wondering, Los Alamos doesn't use blackberries for classified info either, so what the article is really saying is that someone got their laptop and cell phone stolen on travel.
Now I know what you are thinking... Man, what idiots! I would never let my laptop get stolen! But then think about how much time your laptop spends alone at your house or in your hotel room when you are not using it, or when it is locked in your car. Then think about how thieves might be even more interested in stealing your equipment if they knew that it was from a weapons lab employee because they were hoping that would contain classified info they could sell. It reality, the equipment sells about at well as shitty articles like this one: It sounds really desirable until you start poking around and realize it is just full of crap.
You want to get excited about something? Pakistan is releasing A.Q. Khan from house arrest. You may have missed that since the news didn't make a big deal about it, but he actually sells classified weapons designs to foreign countries like Iran and North Korea with the support of Pakistan. But ignore that and the millions of dollars of military equipment that we "lost" in Iraq. Just keep worrying about stolen government equipment like Los Alamos' unclassified laptops...