US nuke agency computer hacked

2006-06-10 14:11

Washington - A computer hacker stole a file containing the names and social security numbers of 1 500 people working for the energy department's nuclear weapons agency.

Officials told a congressional hearing on Friday that the department's senior managers were informed only two days ago of last September's incident, which was somewhat similar to recent problems at the veterans affairs department.

None of the victims was notified, they said.

The data theft occurred in a computer system at a service centre belonging to the national nuclear security administration in New Mexico.

The file contained information about contract workers throughout the agency's nuclear weapons complex, a department spokesperson said.

The administrator, Linton Brooks, told a house of representatives hearing that he learnt of the security breach in late September, but did not inform energy secretary Samuel Bodman about it.

It had occurred earlier that month.

'Misunderstanding'

Brooks blamed a misunderstanding for the failure to inform either Bodman or deputy energy secretary Clay Sell about the security breach.

Brooks' NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the department, and he said he assumed DOE's counterintelligence office would have briefed the two senior officials.

The compromised data file was in the NNSA's unclassified computer system.

Brooks said the file contained names, social security numbers, date-of-birth information, a code where the employees worked and codes showing their security clearances.

A majority of the individuals worked for contractors and the list was compiled as part of their security clearance processing, he said.

- AP