Global Security Newswire

A key U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory has sustained computer losses far exceeding the three reported stolen last month, according to an Energy Department letter acquired by laboratory watchdogs. Indeed, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has disclosed "that 13 computers have been stolen or lost in the past 12 months and that 67 computers are currently 'missing'", the letter says (see GSN, Jan. 30).

Energy Department managers said they became aware of the situation after the laboratory reported that three computers were stolen recently from an employee's home and a Blackberry communications device was lost in a "sensitive foreign country."

The thefts have "revealed several property management, accountability, incident reporting and cyber security concerns," says the department letter to top laboratory officials that was leaked to the Project on Government Oversight (Project on Government Oversight release, Feb. 11).

Laboratory spokesman Kevin Roark sought to temper concerns over the losses.

"None of these systems constitute a breach of a classified system," he told the Associated Press, saying that computers with classified information are not allowed outside the laboratory (Joan Lowy, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 11).

The Energy Department, however, appears to have taken little comfort from laboratory assurances.

"The magnitude of exposure and risk to the laboratory is at best unclear as little data on these losses has been collected or pursued given their treatment as property management issues," the letter says.

POGO leaders expressed similar concern.

"It is troubling that [laboratory management] only informed the government of this during investigations into the most recent thefts," POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said in a press release (POGO release).