DoE inspector general raps agency's computer management system

Published 12 April 2007

Twenty desktop computers containing classified information are missing; another seventy-four lacked proper labeling

Military intelligence is an oxymoron, the old saw goes, but what about Department of Energy counterintelligence? Sad to say, it is not looking so good these days either. According to the agency’s inspector general, DoE’s Counterintelligence Directorate was unable during a recent audit to locate twenty desktop computers containing classified data. “Further[more], the inventory records were so imprecise and inaccurate that the directorate had to resort to extraordinary means to locate an additional 125 computers,” the inspector general’s report explained. In addition, the IG noted that the directorate had failed to enter an additional fifty-seven computers in its property inventory and that seventy-four computers lacked the appropriate security classification labels. “Problems with the control and accountability of desktop and laptop computers have plagued the department for a number of years,” said the report.