Posted on 02/12/2009 7:55:58 AM PST by shielagolden
WASHINGTON (AP) The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is missing 69 computers, including at least a dozen that were stolen last year, a lab spokesman said. No classified information has been lost, spokesman Kevin Roark said.
The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight on Wednesday released a memo dated Feb. 3 from the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration that said 67 computers were missing, including 13 that were lost or stolen in past 12 months.
Roark initially confirmed those figures, but later updated them. He said a total of 80 computers were lost or stolen in 2008, but 11 were recovered.
The lab was initiating a monthlong inventory to account for every computer, Roark said. The computers were a cybersecurity issue because they may contain personal information like names and addresses, but they did not contain any classified information, he said.
Also missing are three computers that were taken from a scientist's home in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 16, and a BlackBerry belonging to another employee was lost "in a sensitive foreign country," according to the memo and an e-mail from a senior lab manager.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was wondering why that laptop I bought off craig’s list never needed to be plugged in nor needed a battery.
Look for their MAC ID’s (not to be confused with Apple’s Mac) popping up from servers based in China.
Employees must be financially and legally responsible for computers signed out to them
Nice. I bet the glow in the dark keys are a nice feature too.
No actually, they're silent.
It's mind-boggling that there are still stories like this coming out of Los Alamos. Wasn't there a story just like this a year or two ago? What he hell is going on over there?
Put "Los Alamos" in the FR search box if you want to get really bummed out.
......yeah right...STFU idiot.
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The White House is on the line for you!
Ask not what you can do for a foreign power, but what Sandy Burgler can do with tax exempt cash deposited and laundered though the Swiss?
“Look for their MAC IDs (not to be confused with Apples Mac) popping up from servers based in China.”
This is what I suggested last time this (ahem) article was posted. Wouldn’t ya think the MAC addresses of these computers would be in a database somewhere, and they could be detected very (or at least “pretty”) quickly after they ever logged onto the ‘net? [at least wired, perhaps not wirelessly] Which FReeper knows this answer?
I would guess that in a large shop, about half of them are still there, in some closet or the wrong office. Turned in to get repaired, fix is late, person transfers or leaves, and paperwork never followed up, assuming there was paperwork.
Maybe some is theft, but a lot is more mundane. Sloppy management exhibits symptoms.
no more Doom or Quake for the night-shift guys :(
Not id the thieves, or their fences were smart enough to erase the EPROMs and re-load them. (or in the case of Pentium 4s, replacing the processors)
Adding a nic would give it a new mac address. Also there would not be a reason to put it on the internet if someone was looking for data. I meet one one the computer techs for this site a couple years ago. Getting parts in and out of the buildings was a real time consuming process. I would guess most are in a closet behind a box of paper.
Ah, government efficiency and responsibility.
“Not id the thieves, or their fences were smart enough to erase the EPROMs and re-load them. (or in the case of Pentium 4s, replacing the processors)”
Agreed, if the thieves/fences were that crafty. Out of 67 lost CPUs, though, there’s no doubt a few would show up w/original MACs. No?
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