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.'"
better than... (Score:4, Insightful)
Euphanisms? (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh hey (Score:0, Insightful)
This doesn't jive (Score:4, Insightful)
three of the 13 computers which went missing in the past year were stolen from a scientist's home
Either this guy gets robbed a lot, or he's been stealing laptops.
Re:Euphemisms? (Score:3, Insightful)
Passwords and credit info in plaintext, or plain ordinary personal info.
Re:Look on the bright side, (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Shouldn't the harddrives be encrypted? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I just wonder one thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Other countries do it far better than US private industry can. The secret to running effective government services is not to appoint horse judges unless the task involve judging horses.
As always however, a mixture instead of an extreme is often the best solution.
Back to the original article - we've just come through a long period where "being a member of the party" is a better way to get ahead than acheivements. If that makes you think of Godwin's law so be it, but it personally makes me think of shoddy third world kleptocracies.
Re:Oh hey (Score:3, Insightful)
America's greatest threat to national security and the economy is the government itself.
That's correct, or more specifically the greatest threat is the mismanagement of government that allows it to operate outside of its legitimate roles which is why it can't correctly take care of basic things like this.
If the history of the 20th century isn't a lesson about the nature of government then I don't know what is. It's a shame that most people don't study this on their own so their primary exposure to it comes from government agents (known as "schoolteachers"). These people quite naturally believe in government (as opposed to regarding it as a necessary evil) or else they wouldn't work for it. Just do some research and add up all the known deaths during the 20th century that were caused by terrorism. Then do some more research and add up all the known deaths during the 20th century that were caused by people being murdered by their own governments. Compare those two numbers and note the vast difference in quantity. Tell me which is more dangerous.
Re:Morality and Plutonium: Where are the guards? (Score:3, Insightful)
Where are the guards? Where are the security personnel who watch doors to secret/classified labs containing computers with sensitive information? These are simple questions. They are about people with direct responsibility to the safeguarding of these computers. These sorts of people are people who don't always know what it is that they are guarding and thus may not know how vital their jobs are to this nation. I don't worry about these questions because they have easy answers like, "He took a long lunch", "No one was watching the door" etc. I worry about the other people. The people who walk by every day and notice something is missing but don't deign to ask a simple question, "where did that computer go?" 67 computers went missing and not one scientist noticed? Scientists are educated in the scientific method where a lack of information, or wrong information is seen as the enemy. Scientists should hold themselves duty bound to always tell the truth if only for the reason that if the truth is not told, there can be no progress. In truth, scientists should be as much the guardians of the information they are privy too as the people whose job it is to expressly guard those computers. What has become of these computers is just as an important a questions as what has become of our (the scientific community) morality. For if we can not change our attitudes towards our responsibilities then we can not change our behaviors in respect to them. For all our sakes, I hope they accidentally skipped a room when they were searching.
While you're quite wrong on a bunch of stuff, let me point out that just because someone is good at surface science or handling energy cross-sections doesn't make them any smarter in other ways. Or observant, for that matter.
Some of the smartest people I've ever known (including myself) have made some of the dumbest mistakes and said some of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
New Mexico and heroin (Score:3, Insightful)
New Mexico is a hot bed of drug smuggling and gang activity. IIRC a few years ago they raided a trailer of some employees for drugs and came up with stolen computer gear.
No international spy conspiracy, just people selling stolen goods to get high.
Still, this is really lax security in an area rife with crime.
13 computers lost/stolen/year, 14000 employees (Score:3, Insightful)
There are ~14000 employees at LANL. I'd guess 20,000 laptop and desktop machines. 0.1% loss per year isn't bad. There's nothing in the article to say when the other 67 might have fallen off the radar.
If their lab is anything like our lab (Score:2, Insightful)
The "missing" computers were cannibalized for parts for the other computers.
It's a farce really, considering the Chinese already stole our nuclear secrets from Bush.
Re:better than... (Score:1, Insightful)
Los Alamos National Laboratory has 12,500 employees...if they lost 13 computers this year, that means, on average, only one computer lost per 1,000 employees. That's not bad, seeing as how the computers were probably CORPORATE laptops employees take on travel and use to work from home. Not everything they do at LLNL is sensitive, by the way...
Re:I just wonder one thing (Score:2, Insightful)
Where is the insight? Right now hundreds of thousands of Americans are without healthcare. Many more have inadequate health care. Instead of this in many countries everyone has healthcare. Now admittedly in those countries everyone is subject to "government errors." BUT THEY ALL GET HEALTHCARE. What would be insightful would be to suggest a way for everyone to get healthcare without these types of problems. Maybe that is why some folks are so keen on electronic records? Better record keeping might reduce errors. Come on causality, let's hear some insight!