Security Violation at LANL, Yawn

Yesterday, the Project on Government Oversight “confirm[ed] another breach involving unauthorized release of classified data via email that occurred last week. The Lab has officially designated the incident an Impact Measurement Index-1 (IMI-1), the highest threat level …”

The Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck explains the incident as yawner, basically a common mistake:

[Los Alamos National Laboratory] spokesman Kevin Roark confirmed this afternoon that a lab employee emailed a classified document within the lab on the lab’s “yellow” network. It’s an internal network, but because it is connected to the outside world via the Internet, you’re not supposed to use it for classified stuff.

POGO’s Pete Stockton told me this afternoon that in addition to the improper use of the yellow network, the classified document in question was emailed to a lab employee who does not have a security clearance, which would also be a problem.

Andy Lenderman in The New Mexican reviews the archives to identify “22 Category 1 incidents at Los Alamos from 2002 through 2004 [and] 35 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the same time frame.”