Los Alamos Nuclear Facility Hacked via USB - It could be (and probably is) worse
FBI agents are investigating three USB flash drives that were discovered at a suspected meth lab. Jessica Quintana a data entry clerk at Information Assets Management a Los Alamos Nuclear Facility subcontractor. Some sources are indicating that she worked in the X Division which handles nuclear weapons design data.
According to the police report, three Flash drives were part of the evidence collected, once police found evidence that the data on them contained data from Los Alamos the FBI was brought in.
So this is not exactly a “hack” as there really was no technical wizardry which went into this data thef. And judging from what appears to be Miss Quintana’s MySpace page, she wasn’t exactly technical. So here we have a case where someone with limited technical knowledge, addicted to meth was able to smuggle out three USB flash drives worth of nuclear weapons data.
I am glad to see our Homeland Security initiatives are working, we may be able to block ships coming out of North Korea with nuclear weapons technology, but meth addicts smuggling USB drives full of nuclear weapons data out of Los Alamos appears to be a problem.
Apparently USB flash drives have been banned from Los Alamos for the past two years, but it looks like some folks did not get the memo.
Imagine what could have been done by someone with more ( even basic) technical skills than Miss Quintana, using other techniques and tools (as we know) to install Trojans and other tools which could not only compromise the system the drive is connected to, but also the rest of the network.
Then we have the Meth addict angle, Methamphetamine addicts are not exactly known for their loyalty, as their addiction worsens they will sell all of their possessions, steal whatever they can to make money for their next fix. One would wonder if there is any sort of drug screening that occurs in order to work at the Los Alamos Labs, but maybe the policies for subcontractors is different. However, an employee addicted to drugs makes the perfect mole. I am sure many terrorist groups and countries would have supplied Miss Quintana with all the Meth she needed for the contents of those Flash drives.
One also must wonder how many other USB flash drives full of nuclear secrets may exist out there. These three were discovered by accident, the FBI got lucky, if a Meth user with limited technical skill can smuggle nuclear weapons data out of Los Alamos, who knows what more sophisticated thefts have occured.