ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is searching for a missing floppy disk that was marked classified.
“This disk was hand carried to Sandia and entered into our system and we should have protected it much better,” said Sandia Corporation President and Laboratories Director C. Paul Robinson. “As others are doing, we are taking strong measures to improve the tracking of all of our electronic materials. I am heartened by the fact that when this item couldn’t be found during our recent wall-to-wall inventory, the staff immediately took action to report it.”
A recent inventory of Sandia’s classified Removable Electronic Media (REM), which includes floppy disks and CDs, identified that a floppy disk is missing. The floppy disk was provided to Sandia by a military organization. Upon completion of the inventory the responsible organization reported the missing item to Sandia’s Security Incident Management Program (SIMP) on June 30, 2004. SIMP made the appropriate notifications to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Sandia continues to look into all possible areas where the disk might be located and is taking measures to ensure all classified materials are handled correctly.
Although the item is marked classified, indications are the disk contains no weapons data or information that could damage national security. The item was marked classified and had not been fully reviewed to determine whether the information was classified.
The inventory did not identify any other missing items marked classified.
Sandia will work closely with DOE Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks, who have been directed by DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham to look into the matter.