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Inspector Lists Computers With Atomic
Secrets as Missing
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/washington/01missing.html
WASHINGTON, March 30 — The office in charge of
protecting American technical secrets about nuclear
weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop
computers, at least 14 of which have been used for
classified information, the Energy Department
inspector general reported on Friday.
This is the 13th time in a little over four years
that an audit has found that the department, whose
national laboratories and factories do most of the
work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has
lost control over computers used in working on the
bombs.
Aside from the computers it cannot find, the
department is also using computers not listed in its
inventory, and one computer listed as destroyed was
in fact being used, the audit said.
“Problems with the control and accountability of
desktop and laptop computers have plagued the
department for a number of years,” the report said.
In January, Linton F. Brooks was fired as the
administrator of the National Nuclear Security
Agency, the Energy Department agency in charge of
bombs, because of security problems. The agency was
created in the 1990s because of security scandals.
When the most recent audit began, the
Counterintelligence Directorate was unable to find
141 desktop computers. In some cases, documents were
found indicating that the computers had been taken
out of service.
Previous incidents of wayward computers have also
involved nuclear weapons information. But the office
involved in this breach has a special
responsibility, tracking and countering efforts to
steal bomb information. Its computers would have
material on what the department knew about foreign
operatives and efforts to steal sensitive
information.
The report includes a response from the security
agency that generally agrees with the findings. But
the inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, noted in
his report that “the comments did not include
planned corrective actions with target completion
dates.”
A spokesman for the department, Craig Stevens, said
Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman “recognizes that
we need to manage this place better.”
The counterintelligence office was recently merged
with the intelligence office to improve operations,
Mr. Stevens said.
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