Thread: Inspectors Disclose Security Breach at Nuclear Lab

Inspectors Disclose Security Breach at Nuclear Lab

January 14, 2008 9:34 AM

Marcus Baram Reports:

Federal inspectors have detailed yet another security breach at one of the nation's oldest nuclear weapons plants.

There may have been dozens of security violations involving the use of unauthorized laptop computers being brought into secure areas of the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, according to a report released by the Department of Energy's inspector general.

The investigation began after a contractor brought an unclassified laptop with wireless capability into a limited area of the plant in October 2006. The computer was not properly secured, and the user left the area with the computer, which was not retrieved until an hour later.

Although the department requires a written report within 32 hours of a security breach, it took staffers at the plant six days to submit the report.

In addition, inspectors discovered that as many as 37 additional laptops may have been brought into the plant's limited area without following proper security protocols.

Nine of those laptops were later taken out of the country, including two of which were taken to countries on DOE's sensitive countries list.

According to the report, the contractors involved in the incident were immediately removed from the facility and their unclassified e-mail accounts were suspended.

The laboratory has suffered at least two other security breaches in the last year.

In December, ORNL was one of several plants targeted by a coordinated phishing attack which may have exposed the Social Security numbers of all visitors to the lab over a 14-year span. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials told ABC News at the time that they believe the attacks originated in China with Chinese entities probing U.S. systems.

The attacks were manipulated to look like legitimate e-mails, including one that purportedly advertised a scientific conference.

Last July, janitor Roy Lynn Oakley pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he tried to sell pieces of uranium enrichment equipment to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., which he had gathered while working at the East Tennessee Technology Park, which is part of the Oak Ridge reservation.

At the time, the facility's office manager said it reviewed its security procedures in light of the breach.

The National Nuclear Safety Administration's spokesman did not return calls for comment.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/200 ... curit.html

Oh God. This is outrageous.

W

"Security Breach" "Security Violations"

Crimes of High Treason.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein

I presented some of my research there and when I tried to take a pic in front of an ORNL sign (while holding my papers) - the security guard came running over to take my camera! I finally got to keep it though after some debating about national security. They sure seemed secure back then - no way would they have let me bring an unsecured laptop onto the premises! I guess my soc sec # was on the list the Chinese obtained. Nice.