FBI criticized over 320 missing weapons, laptops
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The FBI had more than 300 weapons and laptops lost or stolen in just under four years, and some of the computers contained sensitive or classified information, the U.S. Justice Department inspector general said on Monday in a highly critical report.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency says several-hundred tons of high explosive material have disappeared in Iraq. The agency says a lack of security has led to looting from several sites.
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WASHINGTON - The FBI has a backlog of hundreds of thousands of hours of untranslated audio recordings from terrorism and espionage investigations, despite large increases in money and personnel for translations since the 2001 terror attacks, the Justice
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The Department of Justice and the yesterday FBI said ongoing investigations have identified more than 1 million botnet crime victims.
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The FBI wants to compile a massive computer database and analyze it for clues to unmask terrorist sleeper cells. Two congressmen are worried about whether the bureau will protect the privacy of U.S. citizens.
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The FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records -- including terrorist watch lists, intelligence cables and financial transactions -- culled from more than 50 FBI and other government agency sources. The system is one of the most powerful data analysis tools available to law...
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Also: Electronic devices seized at border searches. See what people are saying on News.com Extra.
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The U.S. Commerce Department has admitted that more than 1,100 laptop computers have gone missing in the last five years, including almost 250 from the Census Bureau.
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Six laptop computers containing sensitive airport security information that were stolen last month have been recovered, the FBI said.
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The FBI lost 160 laptop computers in less than four years, including at least 10 that contained highly sensitive classified information and one that held "personal identifying information on FBI personnel," according to a new report released today.
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Oct. 27, 2004 - Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.
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The FBI has fielded almost twice as many complaints from mortgage lenders so far this year as it did for all of 2003, the bureau reported Friday.
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The FBI does not have enough  translators to handle a growing backlog of documents and  intercepts in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto, a federal audit  said on Monday, confirming criticism by U.S. elected officials  and experts.
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Scores of classified documents are missing from the Foreign Ministry, security police said, although they didn't say if a criminal investigation would be launched.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Commerce Department reported that 1,137 laptops have been lost or stolen since 2001, with 249 of them containing some degree of personal data. The department couldn't determine whose data may have been on the machines, of which 672 belonged to the Census Bureau. It wasn't aware of any data having being used improperly, it said Thursday. The findings are from a Commerce Department review covering 15 agencies that use a total of 30,000 laptops. It comes as businesses and governments try to tighten their control over mobile devices after several high-profile incidents concerning theÂ loss of sensitive data. The Census Bureau's laptops -- used for collecting census data in the field -- rarely contain data on more than 100 households, and the data can't be accessed by the surveyors, many of whom are temporary, hourly employees. the department said. However, the Census Bureau also lost 15 handheld computers used to gather survey data. As a result, the department is contacting 558 households. The risk of the data being misused was "extremely low," it said, since the data is encrypted and two passwords are required for access. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which falls under the Commerce Department, lost 325 laptops, three of which had personal data. One of the laptops was stolen after a fire at one of its buildings in Seattle, Washington. The machine contained addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers for 146 employees, the department said. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said the agency plans toÂ strengthen accountability standards, encrypt data on all department laptops and implement two-factor authentication. U.S. government agencies have been stung by hardware losses in recent months. In May, aÂ laptop and external hard drive was stolenÂ from the home of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employee containingÂ data on 26.5 million veteransÂ and active-duty military personnel. The laptop was recovered, and two teenagers were arrested in June. Â
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A Justice Department investigation has found pervasive errors in the FBI's use of its power to secretly demand telephone, e-mail and financial records in national security cases, officials with access to the report said yesterday.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is investigating a missing hard drive containing the personal records of 48,000 military veterans, the agency said. The external hard drive contained about 20,000 personal records that were not encrypted, according to information from U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican. A VA employee reported the hard drive missing from an agency Birmingham, Alabama, facility on Jan. 22, according to a VA press release. The VA and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the missing hard drive, the VA said in its Friday press release. The VA's Office of Information and Technology is conducting a separate investigation, Jim Nicholson, VA's secretary, said in a statement. "We intend to get to the bottom of this, and we will take aggressive steps to protect and assist anyone whose information may have been involved," Nicholson added. In May, the VA reported a laptop and hard drive containing the personal records of 26.5 million military veterans and their families had beenÂ stolen from an employee's home. Police laterÂ recovered the hardware, and the VA said computer forensics tests indicated thieves had not accessed the data, but the theft set off criticism from several members of Congress about theÂ VA's cybersecurity practices. The hard drive in Alabama was used to back up information contained on an employeeâs office computer, and may have contained data from research projects the employee was involved in, as well as personal information, the VA said. The VA Office of Inspector General has seized the employeeâs computer and is analyzing its contents, the VA said. The VA is prepared to notify affected people and provide free credit monitoring, the agency said. The VA will continue to aim to be a leader in protecting personal information, Nicholson said in his statement. In August, the VA also reported that a desktop computer containing the personal information of 38,000 veterans was missing from the office of Unisys Corp., the subcontractor assisting at the agency's medical centers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The lost VA hardware prompted a congressional review of other U.S. government agencies, and agencies reported thousands of laptops missing in the last five years.