Homeland Security ?

[lizbud]

This makes me think that maybe our government ought to
forget about keeping tabs on everyone's library book checkouts
and abortion records and start checking a little closer to home.

This sounds really scary to me.


US nuclear lab loses secret data

By David Willis
BBC Los Angeles correspondent


One of America's largest nuclear weapons research laboratories has suspended its activities after secret information data went missing.
Officials are not saying what data has gone missing from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but clearly it is highly sensitive.

This is said to be the first time in living memory that Los Alamos has suspended part of its operations.

The laboratory was the birthplace of the first atomic bomb.

Two data storage devices were revealed to be missing last week from a department called the weapons physics directorate.

Officials are currently conducting a detailed inventory of sensitive data at the lab logging CDs and floppy discs.

That work is expected to take several days.

Staff who had access to the items in question are being allowed into the plant under escort only.

The National Nuclear Security Agency, the federal agency which oversees the industry, has sent a team to Los Alamos to investigate the disappearance.

Latest incident

The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bidding.

Those include the disappearance of similar classified material two months ago.

Founded during World War II by a small group of scientists and military personnel who were seeking to develop atomic weapons, the Los Alamos laboratory now has more than 12,000 employees working on a site roughly 70km-square.

[dukedogsmom]

Sounds like someone from the inside is doing this. Very scary. I think the U.S. is far less secure than the powers that be want us to believe.

[lizbud]

I just wonder if anyone is really "watching the store" here,
or hunting for terriosts behind the wrong bushes.(no pun intended) Is anbody really in charge or responsible for security
in our own government organizations ?

[catnapper]

I was talking to someone yesterday about a similar thing. He sells a new filing solution to clients such as banks and pharmacuetical companies. He said that they are working with a client right now (a very presitgious company) and they are missing well over 3,000 sensitive files!

Think about it... those files contain information about us - from our SS# on down. Its too easy for someone to grab hold of that info and "become" you. I know this isn't as scary as a national threat with atomic weapons, but I mention it because companies are so lax about filing, and keeping tabs on where files are. Its SO easy with today's technlogy to code everything within a file, and it would be immediately obvious that it was missing from the folder - or that the folder was absent! But companies don't want to go to the "hassle" and expense to update and coordinate their files at the start. I think its time we do, or we're in some serious trouble in the next few years, as thives become more daring about stealing intellectual property.

[Edwina's Secretary]

But don't worry Liz.... my photo has been sent to Homeland Security so you are safe from this national threat! Meanwhile new designs for nuclear weapons are running amuk in the New Mexico mountains!

[lizbud]

Originally posted by Edwina's Secretary
But don't worry Liz.... my photo has been sent to Homeland Security so you are safe from this national threat!

LOL