Lawmakers Slam Los Alamos Security

Both Democrats And Republicans Assail Nuclear Lab Managers, Energy Dept. Supervisors

(CBS)  By CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson

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At a congressional hearing today, both Democrats and Republicans assailed Los Alamos National Laboratory managers and their Department of Energy supervisors for what they view as the same old security problems. This, despite the fact that Los Alamos, the nation's premiere nuclear weapons center, has been under new management for seven months.

House members of the Energy and Commerce committee, charged with oversight of Los Alamos, today threatened everything from yanking the Lab's security responsibilities to shutting it down entirely.

"There is an absolute inability and unwillingness to address the most routine security issues at this Laboratory," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "If we have to shut down the Laboratory, then so be it. But we ought to be able to get security right at Los Alamos."

Management and security scandals have plagued the Lab for years. Most recently, as reported exclusively by CBS News, a 22-year old former Lab employee named Jessica Quintana walked out unchallenged with hundreds of pages of classified documents. Police found them by accident during a drug raid on the trailer home of her roommate. The FBI's criminal investigation of the case is ongoing.

"Why she hasn't been arrested yet is a mystery to us," an insider tells CBS News.

Sources also tell CBS News that Quintana had access to sensitive secrets including underground nuclear weapons test data and the code that keeps nuclear weapons locked in case they are stolen. In one of several interviews with the FBI, Quintana told officials that security at the Lab was so lax, she was never checked when entering or leaving, and it was easy for her to walk out with hundreds of pages in her backpack, as well as several portable computer storage devices.

The Laboratory and Department of Energy have repeatedly promised Congress big changes. The biggest one was supposed to happen when the federal government put the contract to manage the Lab up for bid for the first time in history. The University of California had held the contract since the Lab's beginnings in 1943. Last June, a new consortium of four organizations took control. But the new faces turned out to look a lot like the old ones, with the University of California retaining a large portion of the contract. That, suggested members of Congress today, may be the problem.

In response, the Lab's director, Michael Anastasio, took responsibility for the most recent security breach and tried to assure fed-up members of Congress that everything is under control.

"We took immediate action when we learned of the breach," Anastasio said, but "there will not be a silver bullet solution because there are none."
Los Alamos National Laboratory employs more than 9,000 people and has an annual budget of $2.2 billion. Taxpayers have financed tens of millions of dollars in security upgrades at the Lab in recent years amidst various scandals.

A recent Inspector General's report said that Lab security remains inadequate despite all the expense.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., likened the pattern of security breaches followed by Lab promises to tighten security to "groundhog day." Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich, said "it's dejavu all over again."

[mveronica]

It seems to me that too many large businesses think that they don't have enough time to worry about security and therefore will waste millions of dollars spending money on big brand name security companies that don't get the job done. Too many security companies out there try to cover all aspects of security, making them only mediocre in all areas...not to mention expensive!

There are many security companies out there that focus on one aspect of security and do it well. Like email security: http://www.essentialsecurity.com/products.htm

or laptop security: http://www.essentialsecurity.com/news.htm?id=41

The article mentions that Quintana was able to leave with hundreds of pages of confidential information, along with other devices that hold confidential data. Los Alamos should seriously consider converting all of their analog data to digital and then using encryption to protect it. That way, even if a laptop does get stolen, the data cannot be accessed.

[mveronica]

It seems to me that too many large businesses think that they don't have enough time to worry about security and therefore will waste millions of dollars spending money on big brand name security companies that don't get the job done. Too many security companies out there try to cover all aspects of security, making them only mediocre in all areas...not to mention expensive!

There are many security companies out there that focus on one aspect of security and do it well. Like email security: http://www.essentialsecurity.com/products.htm

or laptop security: http://www.essentialsecurity.com/news.htm?id=41

The article mentions that Quintana was able to leave with hundreds of pages of confidential information, along with other devices that hold confidential data. Los Alamos should seriously consider converting all of their analog data to digital and then using encryption to protect it. That way, even if a laptop does get stolen, the data cannot be accessed.

If Congress would bother to compare the violations at the others against Los Alamos National Laboratory, they would probably find out that they have similar violations and / or problems. Therefore, until they can put up they should shut up and let the Lab get down to business. Yes, there are problems as there are in any large company / facility, but they are fixable. You do not put a horse to death just because it has a saddle sore.

[condumism]

Republicon Out-Sourcing at work in Los Alamos. The ONLY beneficiary is the private contractor that's now running Los Alamos int the ground, while the USA continues to suffer under the cronyism policies of the Republicon Party of Traitors.

[movsrus]

Weapons research by definition is money spent to develop techniques that inflict pain and damage on an enemy. I agree some spin-offs from weapons research have had applications in other fields but would it not be better to spend that money on research whose goal is fundamentally supportive of human activity rather than development of techniques to destroy?

I would rather see my tax dollars spent on medical research, engineering programs and physical science study than on weapons labs that may have a spin off which can help the rest of us.

Weapons research on a nuclear bomb helped develop a whole new area of energy production which doesn't rely on carbon based fuels. Unfortunately, this research has also allowed the secrets to our demise to be spread far and wide to irrational people who wish to do us harm. Weapons research is a double-edged sword and the edge is sharper on the side of danger to humanity than it is on the side of benefit to us all.

[firststate]

If weapons research produced only advances in weapons, it would make more sense to shut down Los Alamos, but that is not the case. Knowledge gleaned through their research makes life better and longer for all of us. Unrelated knowledge gained in weapons research is used in other areas. Money spent on research is well spent because knowledge is not useless. It may not be what a researcher was looking for, but may still revolutionize another field. A weapons researcher's "failure" may be the key a medical researcher needed to perfect a new diagnostic or treatment procedure.

[movsrus]

Shut the whole lab down. We don't need to spend taxpayers money on some usless research devoted to making more efficient weapons to kill humanity. There are far better ways to spend our limited tax dollars than on weapons research.

[bluestardad]

Quit hiring local yocals just because of their location and race and get real professionals in there!

[firststate]

Do security breaches in another facility or organization excuse them at Los Alamos? I don't think so, but that said, more than 99.99% of the employees at Los Alamos would not knowingly endanger the security of the U.S. Most are working there to help our country, not harm it. Assuming their information systems are networked, there's no reason for most users and even most computer terminals to be able to copy information from the networks to portable media.

I think that the real issue might be excessive classification of information. These scientists are too smart to fool when information is "classified" to protect managers' careers or prevent embarrassment. Security managers need to work with the people with access sensitive materials to agree on the criteria used to classify information. The agreed criteria should then be applied to the information available there. When the "classified" label is used improperly, it becomes insignificant. When they know that classified information is worth the trouble of securing it, they are more likely to do it.

[sberger5]

Sandy Berger pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material on April 1, 2005. Under a plea agreement, U.S. attorneys recommended a fine of $10,000 and a loss of security clearance for three years. Why isn't Sandy Berger arrested and in prison? Should the NSA be shut down?

Also consider this:

"Military thumb drives expose larger problem" by Bob Sullivan

"...This week, it appears the U.S. military has lost control of a series of similar tiny thumb drives, with far more serious implications. According to a story first reported by the Los Angeles Times, drives sold at street markets in Bagram, Afghanistan, contain intimate details on everything from U.S. soldiers to secret informants. Data that, in the wrong hands, could easily lead to murder...." Should the military be shut down?

These are all serious problems and ALL should be dealt with in a rational way. Congressmen grand standing at the expense of Los Alamos does not solve any problem. I wish congress would take a deep breath and view all this in context.

[losalamosian]

I've observed first-hand far-worse security "lapses" at many, many, many other agencies. To sight one example from the last 2 months: I attended a brief at the Pentagon, and how did the briefer bring his classified, computer presentation? On a thumb drive. No markings, no storage or double wrap, nothing. Just handed an unmarked, small USB storage device to the operator, had him plug this into the computer, and uploaded a classified brief.

I have personally observed an officer reading a classified document at the Pentagon BUS STOP. In the open. Double wrap, markings, these types of controls aren't even routinely followed in the Pentagon.

A spy pilfers secrets for China? Wen Ho Lee gets off with an apology from the federal judge, but not before a whole earlier round of pinata-city for LANL.

Employees of Los Alamos ("fire them all") are one of the few large body of individuals were you can still smear the whole group based on the actions of a single person. Try that with one of the protected-class groups, and watch the outrage.

Seriously, where's the Congressional hearings on loss of classified data at DoD or other agencies? I'll give you a finding for that hearing: you have no idea what's been lost or compromised, because DoD has NO TRACKING system for electronic classified media.

[losalamosian]

I've observed first-hand far-worse security "lapses" at many, many, many other agencies. To sight one example from the last 2 months: I attended a brief at the Pentagon, and how did the briefer bring his classified, computer presentation? On a thumb drive. No markings, no storage or double wrap, nothing. Just handed an unmarked, small USB storage device to the operator, had him plug this into the computer, and uploaded a classified brief.

I have personally observed an officer reading a classified document at the Pentagon BUS STOP. In the open. Double wrap, markings, these types of controls aren't even routinely followed in the Pentagon.

A spy pilfers secrets for China? Wen Ho Lee gets off with an apology from the federal judge, but not before a whole earlier round of pinata-city for LANL.

Employees of Los Alamos ("fire them all") are one of the few large body of individuals were you can still smear the whole group based on the actions of a single person. Try that with one of the protected-class groups, and watch the outrage.

Seriously, where's the Congressional hearings on loss of classified data at DoD or other agencies? I'll give you a finding for that hearing: you have no idea what's been lost or compromised, because DoD has NO TRACKING system for electronic classified media.

[factresp]

These congressmen must be Chinese or Russian agents. They are the ones who would celebrate the demise of our premier national laboratory, that won us the cold war, and does incredible work in national security!