Linton F Brooks, Bush’s appointee in 2003 for Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security / Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration informed a congressional hearing on Friday that “A computer hacker stole sensitive information on 1,500 people working for the nuclear-weapons unit of the Energy Department, but neither the theft victims nor high officials were notified for nine months.”
The theft, at a National Nuclear Security Administration center in Albuquerque, involved names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and information on where the people worked and their security clearances.
The leak, on the heels of a much larger breach in the Veterans Affairs Department, is sure to raise new alarms about government’s cybersecurity and may provide Democrats more grist to attack the competence of the Bush administration.
The disclosure of the breach and the fact that Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman and his top aides were not told for months, prompted outrage at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Representative Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas and chairman of the committee, told Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the nuclear security agency, that he should resign.
“And I mean like 5 o’clock this afternoon, if it’s possible,” Mr. Barton said. “I don’t see how you could meet with the secretary every day the last seven or eight months and not inform him.”
Heckuva job, Brooksie! Give that man the Medal of Freedom.
(crossposted from liberal catnip)
Yeah! What promotion is this guy going to get?
That guy’s a regular Einstein. Just like the rest of Bu$hCo.
They were probably trying to find out if they owed money to Choicepoint for the loss of information that was to be their exclusive purchase. .
Must be one of those “in the interest of national security” type excuses. Is there anyone left in Washington that understands what their job description entails or is it something that put away for later reading as unimportant?
And Corruption are Staggering, it gives hope to the ‘Trolls/Freepers/Sheeple/Koolaid Drinkers that they too can get Government Jobs, do Nothing, Make a Good Wage w/Great Bennies, and Bitch about Taxes paid and not think about the Waste, including their salaries!!!!!!!!
If you consider the possibility that GW’s administration exists to “un-govern” rather than to govern, in other words, to disassemble the Federal Government, then maybe GW should be named CEO of the year?
That thought has occurred to me more than once, too, e.g. the recommendation that FEMA be done away with.
Of course in this case, Bush could be in trouble with some of the people who are more likely to vote Republican, and I”m not sure they want to irritate those folks.