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)
Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab and Taco Stand (Score:5, Funny)
"Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Laboratory and Taco Stand: Come for the Nukes; stay for the tacos. "
Announcer: "If we lose your sensitive nuclear secrets, your next contract is FREEEEEE!!!!"
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Laboratory and Taco Stand: Come for the Nukes; stay for the tacos. "
You'd betta believe it. It's worth staying for the tacos. Visit the "Hot Rocks" cafe if you're ever over there. The tacos are very good.
It's the illegal aliens (Score:2)
They cross the unprotected border from Mexico, bribe a couple workers, then smuggle the computer south so they can be sold to either Mexico politicians or Al Queda operatives (or both).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just don't plan to park within half a mile of the place.
Viola's is good, too.
Re: (Score:2)
It's also better than causing "national security issues"... surely someone would notice if Americans started getting locked up at Guantanamo..
Not looking in the right place...;-) (Score:4, Funny)
Check the resident BOFH's stash closet...he will probably cut you a good deal on buying them back if you ask nice.
Re: (Score:2)
taking care (Score:2)
I hope they take more care of their plutonium than they do of their computers!
Euphanisms? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Euphemisms? (Score:3, Insightful)
Passwords and credit info in plaintext, or plain ordinary personal info.
Re: (Score:2)
Look on the bright side, (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
They just don't release that sort of information to the public.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Look on the bright side, (Score:4, Insightful)
Inventory - its' a bitch! (Score:5, Funny)
How many times have I told you guys... first you short the receivables and then you steal the goods. Damn govt. employees can't even get a simple thing like scraping off the top right.
Anyone RTFA? (Score:3, Interesting)
Which "sensitive foreign country"?
Re:Anyone RTFA? (Score:5, Funny)
France.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
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: (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.
"only one" ? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or he lost three in a single instance?
Alternative fuel for Laptops (Score:5, Funny)
Project on Government Oversight watchdog brought the lost nuclear laptops to the public's attention
so now they have nuclear laptops. WOW and mine still runs solar power.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Alternative fuel for Laptops (Score:4, Interesting)
so now they have nuclear laptops. WOW and mine still runs solar power.
From the sound of things, they have a whole Beowulf cluster of them!
Re:Alternative fuel for Laptops (Score:5, Funny)
so now they have nuclear laptops. WOW and mine still runs solar power.
From the sound of things, they have a whole Beowulf cluster of them!
Or used to anyway...
Re: (Score:2)
so now they have nuclear laptops. WOW and mine still runs solar power.
They have a solar edition of World of Warcraft?
Unlocated (Score:2, Funny)
Nucular, err Nuclear Laptops?? (Score:4, Funny)
What would be the estimated half-life of the battery? They've been holding out on us!
Reassurances... (Score:4, Funny)
National Nuclear Security Administration dismissed fears the computers contained highly-sensitive or classified information...
He explained that the NNSA has lists of highly sensitive and classified information, and none of the laptops appear on those lists. At least, none of the laptops appear on their remaining lists.
-Loyal
NEVER would have happened in the old days (Score:5, Funny)
This never would have happened back in the good old days of the Princeton IAS machine. [ucdavis.edu] People took good care of their computers then. And kept track of them. You never would have caught a scientist taking one home.
And children respected their parents, and a dollar was a dollar, and we had wonderful music--not this modern stuff, it's noise, I tell you, just noise.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Morale at the lab was so bad (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That was then.
This [blogspot.com] is now.
Re: (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: (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry to post a follow-up to my follow-up.
No, I'm not either -- you really need to see this post from the current LANL blog. It does a nice job of conveying the current level of morale there:
http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/2009/02/larry-moe-and-kevin.html [blogspot.com]
The "Kevin" referred to in the post is Kevin Roarke, the "truth-challenged" official lab spokesperson.
Cybersecurity Issues (Score:3, Interesting)
noting it was more likely to cause 'cybersecurity issues.'
This is a no-duh! type statement. Since actual classified material wasn't obtained, somehow the problem is less severe, right? After all, those 'cybersecurity issues' would never be used for anything as piddly as obtaining classified information.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the point of espionage?
In other news . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Atomic Cowboys (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Hell, they did.
Fighter parts for fighters sold to Shah.
Duh!
In the future we can expect them to get bid on Black Hawk helicopters and Blackwater guards. After all blackwater is mercenary. So...am just saying its possible.
How do you lose 67 computers ? (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
eBay, even nuclear physicists need a bit of spare cash now and then.
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.
The authrorities (Score:2)
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.
Its probably the TSA/Boarder Patrol... (Score:2)
I wonder how many laptops got confiscated by the TSA/Boarder Patrol when arriving back on US shores.
Whew, I almost misread that at ... (Score:2)
Phew. I guess it's not time to head to the vault just yet.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I just wonder one thing (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
You do realize that Los Alamos, while it is a government project in the broad sense, is run by Los Alamos National Security LLC [wikipedia.org], a private, for profit, corporation?
If I hire an employee I am responsible for what he does. If you feel that the employee does a poor job and that something should be done about that, it would make sense to come to me because I'm the one who hired him. Do you catch my drift? That doesn't mean that the employee is blameless, of course, and it would be silly to suggest that it does. What it does mean is that none of this shifts the responsibility.
I see the outsourcing to private corporations that goes on. Even when the corporation does
Re: (Score:2)
And why do you think this faceless machine exists?
Yes it does.
A for profit company's goal is 4.Profit! That means *every* process run by the company is viewed through the 'what does this do for our bottom line' lens and whether they are prepared to take a risk on a process. All this reve
Re: (Score:2)
Because I believe that the USA is flirting with becoming a fascist police state and that most people don't understand how dangerous this really is. That some of our more dis-eased human beings (fevered egos) want to control all the other human beings is nothing new; what really gives them power is when systems (governments, corporations, etc.) take on a life of their own instead of remaining tools that serve human begins. I don't know of a single entity e
Re: (Score:2)
It's already happened friend, not fascism but corporatism.
Re: (Score:2)
The 1976 movie Network has a great explanation of this fact. That movie is also a good way to introduce someone to these ideas who otherwise may not entertain them.
Well, I should have phrased that differently because you're right. You were not insulting and I should not have suggested that you were. I just appreciate a higher level, less mundane discussion of the forces involved and with this post you've prov
Re: (Score:2)
it results in a very powerful entity that the media almost never talks about which is known as the military-industrial complex [wikipedia.org].
Bwwwwwwaaaaahahahahaha! A term invented by, wait, who was it...oh yeah, the President of the United States and transmitted and quoted and written about ad nauseum.
Re: (Score:2)
it results in a very powerful entity that the media almost never talks about which is known as the military-industrial complex [wikipedia.org].
Bwwwwwwaaaaahahahahaha! A term invented by, wait, who was it...oh yeah, the President of the United States and transmitted and quoted and written about ad nauseum.
Yes. A President of the United States (Dwight D. Eisenhower) who had this to say about it:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, ev
Re: (Score:2)
In light of this, your mocking tone is honestly mysterious to me.
Almost as mysterious as the idea that the military industrial complex is something that the media "almost [usnews.com] never [thenation.com] talks about" [washingtonpost.com]. And that was after spending 30 seconds on Google News.
Re: (Score:2)
In light of this, your mocking tone is honestly mysterious to me.
Almost as mysterious as the idea that the military industrial complex is something that the media "almost [usnews.com] never [thenation.com] talks about" [washingtonpost.com]. And that was after spending 30 seconds on Google News.
Using a powerful search engine, you are able to actively seek and find information about something that is rarely mentioned in the media. That sort of research, of separating the tiny fraction of information you are after from the vast ocean of information available, is in fact what a search engine is for. That is not at all the same thing as the mainstream media routinely discussing the downsides and dangers of systems that could bring about a fascist state. You have proven that search engines work; you
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Exactly. This is why we need to trust everything to the private sector. Everything . Can you remember the last time you heard of a major corporation screwing something up? Huh? Didn't think so. They have shareholders to keep track of them, and we all know how dedicated and right they are please don't sell guys I need my yearly yacht. It's like how rock-solid the U.S. banking industry has been; they have actual human shareholders running it, not some government clones, and nothing's ever gone wrong.
T
Re: (Score:2)
This is why you should leave everything in the hands of untrained civilians and profit-driven shareholders. It just makes so much more sense that way.
Compare the balance sheet of any bank to the balance sheet of the government.
Guns allow a great deal more of accounting abstraction.
Re: (Score:2)
What, like BCCI [wikipedia.org] or Barings [wikipedia.org]? If you're only thinking of banks that are still solvent, of course they're going to have good balance sheets.
Re: (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 wher
Re: (Score:2)
In the past year, I've had my bank write to me on TWO separate occasions to say that some private company accidentally leaked my bank details and, as a safeguard, they were changing my credit card number and subscribing me to a credit-watch service.
I have more trust in the US government than in the US private sector.
Re: (Score:2)
"We reported that DoD processed $1.1 trillion in unsupported accounting entries to DoD Component financial data used to prepare departmental reports and DoD financial statements for FY 2000." David K. Steensma Acting Assistant Inspector General for Auditing for the DoD US Dept of Defense (DoD) February 26, 2002
Yes, much more trustworthy.
Re: (Score:2)
"We reported that DoD processed $1.1 trillion in unsupported accounting entries to DoD Component financial data used to prepare departmental reports and DoD financial statements for FY 2000."
Yes, much more trustworthy.
I'm not really sure if the US DOD should be lumped with the private sector or the US government.
Re: (Score:2)
What makes you think that the private sector is any better?
Re: (Score:2)
It's why I think we should establish a BuSab [wikipedia.org] - only for corporations that have become abusive rather than governments. A few come to mind: Sony, Microsoft, <insert medical insurance carrier here>, *IAA etc.
Private companies don't loose laptops? (Score:2)
What is the theft rate of laptops in private companies? With almost 10k employees, 13 computers a year doesn't sound that high, especially considering that Los Alamos would likely be more targeted for theft than a normal company. Note - these computers were not being used to process classified information, so there was no reason to protect them at a higher level than a normal company would protect Proprietary or Personnel information.
Re: (Score:2)
Stop Saying, "Government"! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wait...are my tax dollars going to bug and harass the bejesus out of Linkin Park?
Sweet! Finally something useful is being done with them.
Re: (Score:2)
Think of all the poor children that can now find the laptop of their dreams at the local pawnshop.
Re: (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 be
Re:Oh hey (Score:5, Interesting)
You're condemning government in general because of the actions of a few despotic regimes?
Your argument that we should examine the deaths caused by government vs those caused by terrorism is pretty weak. More people die in car accidents than from terrorists. Perhaps the problem is the propaganda being spread by those pro-car people (driving instructors)?
Analogies aside, government is just a tool of the people. Government itself doesn't hurt anyone. The army might. Blame them, if you like.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I'm saying that those despotic regimes all have one thing in common: the people of the nation never seriously thought that it would happen to them. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a few of them saw it coming and were ridiculed by most others. There is one more thing that all despotic regimes have in common: the time to prepare for them and prevent them is much earlier than the time when it's obvious th
and yet (Score:2)
for all of your criticisms of government, having no government is even worse
your negative observations of government occur in a vacuum, free of any context. when examined in context, the context of realizing the good governments do and the context of realizing the much worse evils that occur without any government at all, means that your prosecution of the very idea of government itself is just a form of insanity on your part
Re: (Score:2)
for all of your criticisms of government, having no government is even worse
your negative observations of government occur in a vacuum, free of any context. when examined in context, the context of realizing the good governments do and the context of realizing the much worse evils that occur without any government at all, means that your prosecution of the very idea of government itself is just a form of insanity on your part
Not once in anything I've written will you see me say that "having no government is ideal". I am not an anarchist. Putting words in my mouth won't change that; it will only reveal the weakness of your position. Be assured that I do not need to recruit your assistance in order to express my position. If what you offer were well-founded dissent, you would not need to resort to such a tactic. I know you probably aren't doing this on purpose but that doesn't change what happened here and that is what I mus
i don't understand your problem (Score:2)
you accept the notion of having a government. good. now you say your problem is that it is too large or too small according to some sort of standard. you don't tell me what that standard is, you just allude to a nebulous kinship with the founding fathers
"As such it needs to operate within clearly-defined limits"
who defines those limiting terms? who sets those limits? who measures affinity with those limits?
and even more importantly, who ENFORCES that?
some sort of metagovernment?
of course not, you would say
Re: (Score:2)
It sure is difficult for some people to say "wow I completely misrepresented your position".
For this we have the Constitution. The idea here is that the gover
evil government agent != school teacher (Score:2)
Still, it would seem to me that just like a Disney shareholder can quite frequently have more impact on changing a company than, say, a strongly conservative religious group's decision to avoid buying from the company, so too, a teacher, or any other government employee, stands a greater chance at implementing significant change than someone on the outside y
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (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.
Re: (Score:2)
In the olden days, when I was a kid growing up in Livermore, the Sandia Guards were considered pretty damn bad-ass, for rent-a-cops, while the LLL guards were a bit of a larf. As an innocent visitor, you'd be inspected, detected, suspected, &c... Meanwhile employees tended to have some amazing shit stashed in their garages, and the local paper often showed visiting delegations of Russian scientists on tour. (Surely not in any "sensitive" areas.) I heard about the "Shiva" LASER project from so many diffe
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Indeed, simple questions, with simple answers. The guards are presumably guarding the classified information of which you speak, since if you RTFA, you'd have found out that no classified information was lost. I guess the guards are doing a fine job then.
As for the 67 computers, I wonder how old they were. At many places I have worked,
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, LostAlamos is better
Re: (Score:2)
Right. And Don't forget they are counting cell phones too! Only 13 lost per year. The FBI should send their agents to los alamos for cyber training.
Re:Spooky (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
In what universe? [imdb.com]
Re: (Score:2)
The same Los Alamos where everyone had the same crappy 3-number combo safes and didn't bother to change the default combo?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=surely+you're+joking%2C+mr.+feynman&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]
Re: (Score:3)
I doubt it has anything to do with payoff, or any other type of corruption. It probably has more to do with them representing the only people available that possess the, extremely specialized, knowledge needed to do the work. A lab worth of scientists and engineers with experience designing/testing cutting edge nuclear weapons isn't something you just pick up on Monster.com.
Re: (Score:2)
I already leave my laptop in the office. In fact I don't use it at all. My Palm Pilot too.
The cyber-security paranoia makes my portable computers worthless.