By Sarita Chourey
Published on July 23, 2004

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered today all Energy Department
operations to halt using controlled removable electronic media (CREM) to
improve media protection procedures.

Abraham's directive follows an announcement earlier this month that Los
Alamos National Laboratory employees had lost two Zip discs containing
classified material. Lab workers are searching for the discs amid more than
2,000 safes and vaults. The lab's director has halted all operations at Los
Alamos, and Abraham has directed that classified operations will not resume
until Energy's deputy secretary, Kyle McSlarrow, and the National Nuclear
Security Administration's administrator, Linton Brooks, confirm that newly
implemented corrective actions improve CREM management.

"While we have no evidence that the problems currently being investigated
are present elsewhere, we have a responsibility to take all necessary action
to prevent such problems from occurring at all," 
Abraham said in a statement.

CREM includes all types of classified hard drives or computer discs.

In May, Abraham called for a variety of security reforms, including several
that affect the way the agency protects classified data. Among the reforms
is an initiative to move toward disk-free computer environments and keyless
security possibly involving a biometric identifier.

At the recommendation of McSlarrow and Brooks, Abraham announced a CREM
stand down and details of a plan, effective July 26. "These procedures are
designed to guarantee a complete inventory of our classified electronic
holdings and make certain that specific individuals can be held responsible
and accountable for future problems," Abraham said in a statement.

Some elements of the plan include:

* A 100 percent initial physical inventory of accountable CREM
  followed by weekly inventories.

* Trained staff will control repositories for all accountable CREM.

* Create a formal checkout process for all accountable CREM.

* An independent validation team will verify the protocols before the
  operation gets back to normal.

The halt to the use of classified discs and hard drives will continue at
Energy facilities until each "conducts appropriate training, reviews
security procedures, ensures complete and accountable custodial
responsibility, and arranges for a complete inventory," 
Abraham said.