US nuclear weapons lab loses 67 computers
THE MENTION OF nuclear weapons laboratories rarely has a calming effect on anyone, even less so when the mention involves 67 lost or stolen computers.
Officials from New Mexico's Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory have fessed up to having only just realised that 67 of its computers were missing, with no less than 13 of them having disappeared over the past year alone.
A memo leaked by the Project on Government Oversight watchdog brought the lost nuclear laptops to the public's attention, leaving the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration with no choice but to confess. Better than letting the debacle blow up in their faces, we presume.
Kevin Roark, a nuclear spin doctor at Los Alamos, confirmed that the lab was now carrying out an inventory check to make sure no additional PCs (or nukes??) were missing.
Roark dismissed fears the computers contained highly-sensitive, classified information about how to blow up islands in the South Pacific, noting it was more likely to cause "cybersecurity issues" than issues of national security. In other words, personal information about the lab's staff might be at risk, but none of the lost laptops came equipped with a big red button, so we can all sleep easy.
Three of the 13 computers which went missing in the past year were stolen from a scientist's home on Jan. 16 and the memo also mentioned a BlackBerry belonging to another staff member had been lost "in a sensitive foreign country". Could that be Russia? China? Iran?
Worryingly, only one of the three computers nicked from Dr Strangelove's house was even authorised for home use. But then, we imagine that when one is a nuclear physicist, playing God and taking home as many government laptops as you please for your kids to play Crysis on is just another perk of the job. µ
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LoJack makes a stealth-like product for computers that nearly guarantees recovery. You would think that anyone who works in a nuclear facility would be required to have a similar (higher end) tracking device installed on their computer as well as company PC's.
Is it sad that my first reaction to this news was, "What? Again?" From 2003 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/29/UCLABS.TMP and http://gcn.com/Articles/2003/05/01/Energy-IG-pans-notebook-lapses-at-Los-Alamos.aspx
Why would that happen now that Obama is in charge??? I thought the US was disarming anyway now that everyone loves them...
Iran's Hitler will blow us all up anyhow.
Physicists used to be pretty good with computers. For example, the World Wide Web was born at CERN, Europe. Physicists used to install their own computers and manage them, too. But those days are over, at least at the DOE labs. Today the computers are managed by lazy, incompetent IT workers whose only qualification is US citizenship. We used to have a fine network, called the Internet. We also used to have local area networks (LANs). That is all gone. At the labs we cannot even connect two computers in the same building or office. The desktop computers can only connect to central computers. Nobody can run their own web server or other services. Grid computing - dead. Physicists are no longer in charge of anything. The labs are run by politicians and administrators. These people have only one thing in mind, namely their own career. That is why they constantly produce new regulations. The labs conduct some research that is classified, however, most of the research is not. But, in order to give those in charge more responsibility (more jobs, more money), the whole lab is being treated the same way. There are places like BNL, JLab and Los Alamos where physicists can no longer choose and install the software they want to use for their research without being hassled by administrators and IT workers. At all labs, physicists are fed up with countless training programs, and the administrators come up every few months with new training. You should take a look at the training. We are seriously being taught that lightning is dangerous. Don't get me started on the "cybersecurity training". The atmosphere at the labs is truly depressive. Needless to point out that our students are being misused to do only time-consuming dumb tasks and learn very little. Let me also point out that the majority of physicists at the labs are foreigners, who are contributing their knowledge and expertise, work like crazy, get no more than 1- or 2-year contracts, and to make matters worse get constantly harassed by administrators with important tasks like providing visa documents to one administration of the government which they just got from another administration. Over many years they labs have operated without (!) a budget. To make matters worse, universities are facing serious budget cuts. Things will get only worse. At the end, many leave frustrated, knowing exactly what is going on at the labs. Even professors with tenure position leave these places because they cannot stand the madness anymore. And nobody dares to say something, because they are all concerned about their jobs. Now, back to your lost laptops - maybe they are just broken beyond repair and a bored administrator failed to remove them from the inventory.
And to think we have to trust these people.
I got one. My single most important rule of getting it out the house is that I must be prepared for loosing it, and everything that comes with it. People usually get what they deserve. One could also say that either people take precautions against something or beg for it to happen.
Relating to "The Optimist" comment:
A lot of countries poor ones at that sees that Genie as a benevolent contributor to ones' economy. Sad indeed.
My comment: If those computers had nuke-info on them and if they were somehow distributed or exchanged for cash, would the perpetrator, REALIZE, him not thinking on where the future nukes could land? Does he live in Antarctica? I almost said the Arctic, but I realized that militarily that area is still valued.
Obama is spreading the wealth to everyone. he gave those computers to those who need them most. everyone should have a computer or a nuclear warhead. its in the socialist doctrine i think. hey, UK, this time we have Neville!!
"in a sensitive foreign country" - This should be Pakistan!!!!