WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- A new report finds that computer security in the U.S. Department of Energy's Counterintelligence Directorate is "inadequate."
The Inspector General of the DOE conducted the investigation to "determine the adequacy of internal controls over computer property maintained by the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence's Counterintelligence Directorate (CN) Headquarters program office," a press release from the Office of the Inspector General stated.
Among its findings, the investigation revealed that the Counterintelligence Directorate could not locate 20 desktop computers listed on its property inventory. "While any loss of a computer is troubling, this situation is compounded by the fact that at least 14 of the computers were known to have processed classified information," the report states.
In addition, the Inspector General found that 57 computers were not included on CN's property inventory, as required by Department of Energy Property Management Standards; loan agreements for 96 Headquarters computers that were located at CN field sites had expired; and labels indicating the classification level of individual computers were not affixed to 74 CN computers, as required.
The Inspector General requested that a plan to correct the inadequate security measures be submitted within 90 days.
The Counterintelligence Directorate is part of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and is responsible for safeguarding DOE's sensitive data and operations against espionage by foreign entities.
