Tuesday, September 5, 2000

Inquiry demanded as hundreds of computers dispapear from Defence Department

The Federal Government has been called upon to explain the disappearance of more than $1.1 million worth of computer equipment in the past 20 months, some of which contained secret information.

The Defence Minister, Mr Moore, admitted yesterday that 273 Defence computers had been lost or stolen since January last year, and promised an immediate investigation into the loss of 14 computers containing confidential files.

Mr Moore said there would be no compromise of Olympics security, as the computers contained only low-level classified material.

Of the missing computers, 129 are portable notebook PCs. Mr Moore said the missing computers represent only 1.8 per cent of the 7,000 notebooks used by the Department of Defence, which also uses 55,000 desktop computers.

"I am alarmed by the prospect of any stolen Defence computers finding their way into the public domain with confidential data on their hard drive," Mr Moore said.

"While I am advised the loss rate is considered very low by industry standards, it nevertheless represents a breakdown in the area of IT security and I am insisting on the matter being followed through."

The Senate Opposition Leader, Senator Faulkner, said the Government was wasting the $8 million it spends each year to protect its system from hackers if laptops containing classified information could mysteriously disappear.

"The Government must provide assurances to the Parliament, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics, that they do have this situation under control, that there is no classified information that has got into the wrong hands, that there is no national security planning information that has got into the wrong hands," he said

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0009/05/national/national13.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 04, 2000

Answers

They mentioned OLympics, so I guess this is Australia.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 05, 2000.