Government watchdog warns of possible IT leaks at Los Alamos
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Government Accountability Office has issued a report on data security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory which says that sensitive and highly classified information is vulnerable to outside access.
The GAO report asserts that the lab has not fully implemented the security protocols and user access control recommended by experts. The report found fault with numerous aspects of the LANL's data security, including network security, encryption of classified data, compliance monitoring, and software configuration.
One reason that LANL remains insecure even after highly publicized security breaches within the past several years is that the facility lacks a comprehensive program for risk assessment, which would help focus security resources where they might do the most good. The GAO report also referred to "organizational culture issues" which militated against effective protection of classified data.
The importance of securing LANL's classified network cannot be overemphasized. Some of the country's most important secrets - including the design of nuclear weapons - reside within its 3,900 servers. The first atomic bomb was designed at the facility, under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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