Los Alamos lab suffers another security lapse

Dec 16, 2003 12:00 PM

Los Alamos National Laboratory is facing yet another embarrassing security lapse involving the loss of electronic storage devices. Officials say they can't account for a high-capacity disk and nine diskettes used at the lab.

While some of the disks were marked classified, the "initial laboratory review indicates that national security was not jeopardized by this incident," the lab said in a statement. An independent federal analysis of the incident is expected. Los Alamos also contacted the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the University of California concerning the storage-media inventory discrepancies.

According to the statement, one diskette, which was marked classified -- but which may not have contained classified information -- was reporting missing on Nov. 20; the diskette may have been destroyed, though there's no record of its destruction. A second diskette was reported missing Dec. 2, and an investigation into the incident reveals that it "was most likely destroyed" in January 2002 during the destruction of four other diskettes. But there's no existing receipt for the destruction of the diskette, according to the statement.

These incidents led to a wider investigation into the physical inventory of every classified data-storage device. That investigation revealed eight more inventory discrepancies. The lab contends that the disks were most likely destroyed, but their destruction was not properly documented.

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