LANL laptop stolen in Ireland
By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New MexicanJune 25, 2007
Security concerns arise as lab braces for Senate funding plans
More security concerns at Los Alamos National Laboratory surfaced Monday, the day before a Senate subcommittee was scheduled to release its highly anticipated spending bill for the lab.
A lab scientist traveled to Ireland late last month for a vacation, and his lab-issued laptop computer was stolen out of his hotel room, federal officials confirmed. But there wasn’t anything classified on it, officials said.
“We really don’t view this as a security breach,” Julianne Smith of the National Nuclear Security Administration said. “It’s a violation of lab policy; that’s it. No classified documents were on the computer, and nothing relating to the weapons program or anything sensitive ... that the lab or NNSA deals with.”
In a separate matter Monday, Newsweek magazine quoted an anonymous source who said another scientist sent a classified e-mail over an unsecured network.
“That reported incident is under review ... and it would be inappropriate to comment until we have all the facts,” Smith said.
Lab spokesman Kevin Roark took issue with the Newsweek report.
“This recent tendency to hold this laboratory accountable for its employees to be anything less than perfect is unrealistic,” Roark said. The lab takes security seriously and has made “great improvements” in the last six months, he said.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in a statement he “was made aware of these incidents and once again I expressed my concerns over these continuing lapses. The actions of these individuals unfortunately detract from the tremendously important work done at the lab every day.”
Earlier this month, a Michigan congressman reported that top lab managers sent classified information involving nuclear material by unsecured e-mail. Federal officials are expected to meet with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., on the matter.
Meanwhile, a North Dakota senator is scheduled to release a document of great importance to New Mexico today, outlining how much federal money the Senate wants to give the lab in the 2008 fiscal year.
The House Appropriations Committee has already suggested as much as $400 million in cuts to Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories compared to the 2007 fiscal year, the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., reports. The overall budget at Los Alamos is about $2.1 billion.
But the Senate usually puts more money into the bill, which pays for the U.S. Department of Energy and other projects, before haggling with the House over the final amount.
“My prediction, without giving specifics, is we’re going to get some real relief in this bill,” U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said in a Monday news conference.
U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and has visited New Mexico with Domenici. Bingaman has also met with Dorgan.
Dorgan’s subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the bill today, Domenici told radio reporters Monday. “I don’t believe we can possibly cut Los Alamos in the method, manner suggested by the U.S. House,” Domenici said. Those cuts would ruin the lab, he said.
The House version of the appropriations bill zeroed out money for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program; eliminated a $95.5 million request to upgrade a nuclear chemistry building and cut about half the lab’s plutonium pit manufacturing budget request for the 2008 fiscal year. Pits are the triggers for nuclear warheads. Los Alamos is the only place in the country where new pits are built, lab officials have said.
Overall, the House has proposed spending $5.9 billion on weapons activities nationwide, which is $396 million below 2007 and $632 million below the president’s 2008 budget request. Thirty-seven weapons programs would be cut nationwide. More money would be spent on renewable energy programs and nuclear nonproliferation.
“New activities within the nuclear weapons program are not supported pending the establishment of a clear policy and plan for our strategic deterrent, while all efforts required to maintain the current stockpile of nuclear weapons as safe and reliable are continued,” U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., said in a statement. Visclosky chairs the House subcommittee that authored the appropriations bill.
Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group said he believes lab managers could avoid layoffs through retirements and other reforms if the budget was cut. “The economic impact of staff leaving, provided they can retire with benefits, will not be significant,” he said.
Contact Andy Lenderman at 995-3827 or alenderman@sfnewmexican.com.
9 comments:
"Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group said he believes lab managers could avoid layoffs through retirements and other reforms if the budget was cut. “The economic impact of staff leaving, provided they can retire with benefits, will not be significant,” he said."
This is good advice, but unfortunately a bit too much common sense for Lab leadership to embrace. After all, we're different, we're unique, we're special, and heaven forbid that common sense ever be allowed to prevail at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. That's not the way we do things here...not one of our core competencies in other words. This is two decades of Lab experience talking, plus take a gander at the tens of millions of dollars the Lab wastes each year on endless litigation. Then you'll understand why so many of my colleagues, including myself, don't see common sense taking root at Los Alamos any time soon. The money train has always kept coming in no matter what, and most of us still believe St. Pete will strong arm a last minute reprieve to ensure nothing changes substantially at Los Alamos. And so once again it will be business as usual. Besides, why change unless we're absolutely forced to? As for the media and lame Congressional threats, we have armies of attorneys and public affairs mouth pieces to counter any threat. Not a concern After all, we are Los Alamos.
“This recent tendency to hold this laboratory accountable for its employees to be anything less than perfect is unrealistic,” Roark said. The lab takes security seriously and has made “great improvements” in the last six months, he said."
Bwaahaahaaaa! You're kidding, right?
Let's put this in perspective. Over the last 4 years the FBI has lost 160 laptops, 10 or more with sensitive information.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR2007021200629.html -
Here's some advice and forecasts. You can take it or leave it:
(1) When in doubt, *USE THE TELEPHONE* and not open email! Less chance of causing significant problems, leaves no cleanup mess if you inadvertently screw up, is a communications path controlled by known entities and required legal justifications to tap, gives you the chance of using the "he said / she said" defense, etc.
Sometimes old tech is really the best tech. There are good reasons why many CEOs never bother to use email to communicate. It's not just because they are technologically illiterate. Let me be clear here. I'm not advocating people use the telephone to break security rules. Use it "just in case", to be safe.
(2) Forget about the Senate coming to save LANL. People will breath a sigh of relief once the dollar figures in the Senate bill come out, but it may not matter. Bush has clearly indicated he's ready for a budget battle with the Democrats who now control Congress. He'll probably get it. Expect a Bush veto of the spending bills and a Continuing Resolution next Fall. When this happens, LANL will be constrained to the House's draconian spending cuts. I don't think I need to spell out to anyone just what this means.
(3) LANL is going to downsize. It may take several years, but Congress has decided to do it and NNSA will agree. We'll be about one third smaller from current levels in the next few years. Start planning for it. LANS will give lip service to diversification but it's becoming clear that they have no real idea how to execute this vision. It's going to be difficult to diversify when our costs are so extremely high.
(4) Benefits and salaries at LANL are headed downward by significant amounts. Inflation and small raises mean that your salary is already slipping backwards. Employee share of medical coverage will go up. Forced contributions to TCP1 from salaries will soon begin and increase ever year. LANS contributions to TCP2 is obviously headed downward based on what we've seen in the LLNL RFP. The TCP1 pension will be frozen within 5 years and retirement medical will be abolished during this same time period.
(5) Morale is not going to improve at LANL. If anything, it's going to get worse based on some of the items listed above. Learn to compartmentalize your feelings about what is happening around you or plan on finding some way to get out. The LANL you once knew is gone and is not coming back.
Sorry if this all sounds rather dismal, but that's were I see things heading.
6) Work 80 hours/2 weeks, no more, don't volunteer for extra responsibilities, and reinvest in your families. You'll be healthier in the long run.
7) Get your own financial house in order. Reduce debt, maximize savings and seriously attempt to cut down discretionary spending.
8) Go to your local bank right now and take out a home equity loan "line of credit" (HELOC). It will cost you nothing to do it. There are no annual fees and the rate on any money borrowed is low. If you don't have to use it, so much the better. If you do need it because you are laid off, it will be there for you. Once you get laid off, it will be impossible to secure one of these lines of credit, so take one out now for peace of mind. Many people in Los Alamos have lots of equity in their homes. You can get up to a $100K line of credit with no home appraisal required and a 10 year payoff period. It takes about 5 minutes of paperwork to get one of these loans. If the worst happens and you get laid off, that $100K may help you survive during the two year period it takes to find a new job and sell your home in Los Alamos. Do it now before the bad times hit.
"LANS contributions to TCP2 is obviously headed downward based on what we've seen in the LLNL RFP."
Clarification from one of the recent LLNS benefits presentations confirms the first bullet on Page 58:
"LANS TCP2 current value is 112.5%"
This is based on the 2007 Hewitt BenVal study, and would reflect the situation at LANL would their contract have been awarded this year. LLNS is also at 112.5%, but to get it to 105%, the service-based TCP2 401(k) contribution would be 1.0% for 0-9 years, 1.75% for 10-19 years, and 2.75% for 20+ years. As the LLNS folks pointed out, these are just 2 data points, and should not be taken as a trend.
8:16, see 6/27/07 10:56 AM under Sustaining Two Competitive Design Laboratories for some more on this.
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