Data Theft at Nuclear Agency Went Unreported for 9 Months

[donsu]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/washington/10identity.html?th&emc=th


A computer hacker stole sensitive information on 1,500 people working for the nuclear-weapons unit of the Energy Department, but neither the theft victims nor high officials were notified for nine months, administration officials acknowledged on Friday at a Congressional hearing.

The theft, at a National Nuclear Security Administration center in Albuquerque, involved names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and information on where the people worked and their security clearances.

The leak, on the heels of a much larger breach in the Veterans Affairs Department, is sure to raise new alarms about government's cybersecurity and may provide Democrats more grist to attack the competence of the Bush administration.

The disclosure of the breach and the fact that Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman and his top aides were not told for months, prompted outrage at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Representative Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas and chairman of the committee, told Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the nuclear security agency, that he should resign.

"And I mean like 5 o'clock this afternoon, if it's possible," Mr. Barton said. "I don't see how you could meet with the secretary every day the last seven or eight months and not inform him."
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smirk will probably give Linton a new job with higher pay