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Published in News

US National Archives loses crucial hard-drive

by on20 May 2009

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Data is safe so long as we don't have builders in


Redfaced administrators from the US National Archives have admitted that they have lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration era.

This data includes Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials.
The drive is missing from the Archives facility in College Park, which is a Washington suburb. It was noticed gone in March and contained 1 terabyte of data.  This was heavy data and unlikely to be Bill's porn collection.

Senators are fuming that such a huge breach of national security could happen and are asking tough questions such as "what is the capital of Rwanda?" and "how was this hard drive removed from the building when you claim to have any security?" The drive was in a "secure" storage area but it was moved to a workspace while it was in use. While it was there more than 100 people would have access  to the area.

This included janitors, visitors, interns, terrorists and others who had just drifted through the area on their way to somewhere more interesting. We made the terrorist bit up.

However lately the site also had a few builders in who needed to pass through on their way to the toilet so really the numbers of people who could have stolen the hard-drive is huge. 

The Department of Justice and the Secret Service but they have not yet determined if the loss was the result of theft or if the hard-drive detached itself from the computer, boarded a plane to Cuba where it defected.
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