Idaho nuclear lab can't account for missing computers

The U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear reactor research lab in eastern Idaho can't account for more than 200 missing computers and
disk drives that may have contained sensitive information, the agency's inspector general says.

The computers were among 998 items costing $2.2 million that came up missing over the past three years at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a new report.

INL officials told investigators that none of the 269 missing computers and disk drives were authorized to process classified information. But they acknowledged there was a possibility the devices contained "export controlled" information - data about nuclear technologies applicable to both civilian and
military use that federal laws prohibit being released to foreign nationals. The audit of property control procedures for sensitive equipment at the nuclear research compound near Idaho Falls is one of a series of internal investigations being conducted by DOE following high-profile security lapses at
nuclear weapons labs. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was shut down from July 2004 to February 2005 following reports that two computer disks containing top-secret information had disappeared. A subsequent investigation
determined the disks never existed

"There was no way for us to determine with certainty what information was on the missing computers and disk drives," investigators wrote in the report. While the hard drives were supposed to be scrubbed of all data by INL before they were used for other projects, donated or sold as surplus, "we could find no evidence that the 269 missing computers and computer disk drives were ever sanitized," the report said.

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