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| Energy Dept. Shelves Removable Disks | |
| 2004-07-24 | |
| The Energy Department, in response to a security scandal at the Los Alamos weapons lab, ordered a halt yesterday to classified work at as many as two dozen facilities that use removable computer disks like those missing at the New Mexico lab. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the "stand-down" at operations using the disks, containing classified material involving nuclear weapons research, was needed to get better control over the devices. The disks, known as "controlled removable electronic media," or The missing Los Alamos disks raised concern at the Energy Department about the handling of the devices at other facilities involved in nuclear weapons research, department officials said. Abraham said he wanted to "minimize the risk of human error or malfeasance" that could compromise the classified nuclear-related information held in the devices, which are used at Energy Department facilities nationwide in nuclear-related work. "While we have no evidence that the problems currently being investigated are present elsewhere, we have a responsibility to take all necessary action to prevent such problems from occurring at all," Abraham said in a statement. The stand-down involves classified work across the government's nuclear weapons complex wherever the CREM storage devices are used, the official said. It will continue until an inventory of the devices is completed and new control measures on their use is put in place, said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis. Employees using the disks also must undergo security training.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 And: Watches with data entry ability (even if just phone numbers). Furby. All transmitter devices are prohibited, which makes sense until you consider: your car key fob??? Oops. None of our workstation computers even HAVE removable drives (or they've been removed). The floppies have their connectors pulled. Ditto the CD-ROMs. The only way to get a disk is to send the files to IT and have them burn a disk. But of course you can just stick Dox in Sox and walk out. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-07-24 6:17:19 PM |
| #5 Actually, the guards have been put on notice to look for the new USB data watches, and to stop anyone wearing those from entering, or exiting the building . |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-07-24 11:36:44 AM |
| #4 I have a watch that stores alphanumeric characters. Think the guard at the entrance would suspect anything? :) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-24 2:51:48 AM |
| #3 Some dipstick took one and has a "neat" mp3 jukebox in his office I bet you anything. |
| Posted by: FlameBait93268 2004-07-24 1:11:40 AM |
| #2 Already off limits at the classified facilities that I know of: Cameras Cell Phones Transmitters of any kind Pagers Voice Recorders (including digital ones) Radios/boomboxes, car radios (can't bring them in) PDAs Thumb Drives Memory devices of any kind (Compact Flash, etc) Laptops Hard Drives Floppy Disks Modems DVDs of any kind. Data CDs of any kind. Recorded or blank CDRoms/CD-RW's (neither data nor music nor MP3) Calculators with alphanumeric memory capability Anything with wireless or Infared capability MP3 players, memory or hd based ones, incl iPods Cassette tapes nor players And CD Players are banned if they can do anything other than play a normal audio CD (i.e. must not be able to play SACD, no MP3 CDs, no DVD-Audio etc, nor should they hook to anything other than a headphone, nor should they have a radio or be capable of recording). For a while all music CDs had to be registered upon entry, checked into the security office, stamped "UNCLASSIFIED" and given a serial number. They could then checked out to the person who owned them - and were forbidden to remove them from the property. We can now at least remove commercially made music CDs from the property to take them home as long as we show them at the guard desk. Why the hell anyone working with Nuc secrets is under any less restriction is beyond me. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-07-24 12:47:54 AM |
| #1 Think USB, DOE-boys... Even the common Swiss Army Knife might be a threat to National Security, and I don't mean the sharp pointy bits... Now, so far, the toothbrushes don't seem to store anything but latent Gingivitis... though, if you run across one of these you should send the guy home, he's spending waaay too much time at the lab, heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-24 12:35:15 AM |
