http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2007/06/15/headline_news/news01.txt By ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor June 17, 2007 Reports of a major breach of security involving the board of directors of the corporation managing Los Alamos National Laboratory came to light Thursday. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees the nuclear complex wrote to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman citing information obtained by committee staff from sources outside the department. The letter expressed concern that information about the breach, reported on Jan. 19, 2007, was withheld from the committee, despite two subcommittee hearings that were held in the meantime for the express purpose of investigating security practices at LANL. Largely because of a series of security problems in the past, the contracts for LANL and its sister laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were put out to bid. LANL's contract was awarded to Los Alamos National Security, (LANS), LLC, and they assumed responsibility on June 1, 2006. "Apparently, open e-mail networks were used by several LANS officials to share classified information relating to the characteristics of nuclear material in nuclear weapons," wrote committee chair John Dingle, D-Mich., to Bodman, in a letter detailing what the committee knows now. An article in Time magazine, first to publish the story on Thursday, said the highly sensitive message at issue came from the laptop computer of Harold P. Smith, a LANS consultant. The article said at least five LANS board members received the e-mail. The reported breach was rated as an Impact Measurement Index 1 (IMI-1) security incident, a reportable incident which "poses the most serious threats to national security interests and/or critical DOE assets or creates serious security situations." According to DOE guidelines, IMI-1 is "the most serious of the four categories of security incidents, established by DOE's Safeguards and Security Program Planning and Management manual dated Aug. 26, 2005." It is characterized by "actions, inactions, or events that pose the most serious threats to national security interests and/or critical DOE assets, create serious security situations, or could result in deaths in the workforce or general public." For comparison, IMI-2 involves those incidents "that potentially create dangerous situations." According to Dingell's letter, a University of California official notified the National Nuclear Security Administration about the breach on Jan. 19. NNSA is the agency that supervises the nuclear complex for DOE. NNSA deployed a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to "identify, recover and sanitize the computer laptops and hardware involved in the incident," Dingell wrote. LANS also began an investigation, completing a report conducted by LANL employees on May 18. LANL and NNSA have both declined comment on the issue, citing federal law. "For reasons of national security and consistent with federal law and the Laboratory's own longstanding policy, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, will not discuss the details of any purported security violation of vulnerability, regardless of whether it exists," stated Jeff Berger, director of the LANL Communications Office in a prepared statement Thursday afternoon. Bryan Wilkes, spokesperson for NNSA, in a prepared message Thursday, said much the same thing, adding that NNSA holds "our sites to very high levels of accountability when it comes to security." He stated, "If procedures are found to have been violated, then appropriate actions are taken." Peter Stockton, chief investigator for the Project on Government Oversight said he was concerned that NNSA had allowed LANL to investigate its own incident. "The first guy to the document and the witnesses can steer the investigation," he said. "They should have had federal guys out there to do that, whether it's the FBI or capable people from the Inspector General." POGO has specialized in safety and security incidents in the weapons complex and executive director Danielle Brian testified during the hearing on Jan. 30. Dingell's letter to Bodman requested answers to questions and additional documents, including a briefing and access to the investigation inquiry and an unclassified version of the report for the committee. Additionally, Bodman was asked to explain NNSA failure to notify the committee, and to emphasize the point, requested a list and summary descriptions of all reportable security incidents at LANL since June 30, 2006. At the time the e-mail incident was being reported to NNSA, the House was preparing to hold the first of two investigative hearings they conducted into security problems at LANL earlier this year. The first one on Jan. 30 focused on classified material found in a Los Alamos mobile home during a drug investigation. Thursday's article in Time magazine erroneously reported that "police stumbled on 1,500 highly classified nuclear weapons designs stashed in a trailer park near the lab..." In fact, the police found computer storage devices known as jump drives and pages of classified documents. Thomas D'Agostino, who was named acting NNSA administrator on Jan. 20, the day after the undisclosed breech occurred, was nominated to become deputy administrator and administrator of NNSA on May 17, the day before a report was completed on the LANS e-mail violation. In the acting capacity, D'Agostino replaced former administrator Linton Brooks, whose resignation was linked to the previous breach of security. The New Mexico Congressional delegation expressed concerns about the new revelations. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., referring to the Time article said he was once again "troubled and disappointed." He cautioned those who might try to use it "as another excuse to punish the entire laboratory," but he traced the root of a particular shortcoming by which sensitive material is still technically able to migrate to unclassified computers. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in his statement, "I am deeply disturbed that it happened even after extensive security measures were to have been put in place at the laboratory, and that I would have to learn about it from a news account." "I have no doubt the LANL community is as tired and frustrated with these repeated incidents as I am," said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. in a statement on LANL security. He continued, "Enough is enough, and for the sake of the lab's future, those who are responsible must be held accountable to put an end to this broken record of breaches." _____________________________________________________ Attend Black Hat USA, July 28-August 2 in Las Vegas, the world's premier technical event for ICT security experts. Featuring 30 hands-on training courses and 90 Briefings presentations with lots of new content and new tools. Network with 4,000 delegates from 70 nations. Visit product displays by 30 top sponsors in a relaxed setting. Rates increase on June 1 so register today. http://www.blackhat.com
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