INL missing 200 computers which may have sensitive data

IDAHO FALLS – 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 was 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.

According to an April 28 memorandum released this week from DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, INL was able to account for 98 percent of the site’s 78,000-item inventory worth more than $500 million.

But investigators were troubled by what they labeled “inadequate controls” over unused personal computers and disk drives that were regularly stored on floors in open hallways near unguarded exit doors without identifying paperwork or chain-of-custody documents. They found numerous records of computers being sent to INL’s Personal Computer Redistribution Center but found no matching records of the equipment being received or processed by the center.

“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.