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Hard Drive With Clinton-Era Data Missing From Nat'l Archives

CWmike writes "An external hard drive that's believed to contain nearly 1TB of data from the Clinton Administration is missing from the US National Archives and Recording Administration (NARA). The drive includes more than 100,000 Social Security numbers and home addresses of people who visited or worked at the White House. Among those whose information is on the list is one of then-Vice President Al Gore's three daughters. The drive also contained details on the security procedures used by the Secret Service at the White House, as well as event logs, social gathering logs, political records and other information from the Clinton administration. Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) said the Archives was in the process of converting information from the drive to a digital records system when it apparently disappeared. The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area to a workplace where at least 100 'badge-holders' had access to it, Issa noted."

180 comments

  1. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    There was a 1TB HDD in the Clinton administration? I knew it, he was a Terminator!

    1. Re:What? by SteeldrivingJon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe they meant a 1 Gigawatt HDD?

      --
      September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
  2. But... by maugle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But it's OK, because the data was encrypted, right? RIGHT?

    1. Re:But... by pablodiazgutierrez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It'd be nicer if the real world would learn from the cryptography field. Meaning no White House security procedure would be considered really safe if it hasn't been publicly reviewed. Everything else is security through obscurity, and it's bound to be leaked as shown. Just speculating.

    2. Re:But... by ciggieposeur · · Score: 0, Troll

      But it's OK, because the data was encrypted, right? RIGHT?

      The data was encrypted, but the NSA had the keys in escrow. After the GOP took over the Executive, all of the escrowed keys were "accidentally" given to Halliburton. From there the data made its way to a laptop in the Middle East which was stolen by Al Qaeda. This data aided Al Qaeda in the planning of 9/11.

      If only the Clinton White House had used PGP instead...

    3. Re:But... by cfkboyz · · Score: 1

      Encrypted should have been the first security but what about security cameras? You would figure that since they are processing classified documents there would be security to screen personal and there property. I have working with the US Army for years and when ever I enter a classified area we are searched.

    4. Re:But... by fooslacker · · Score: 1

      It'd be nicer if the real world would learn from the cryptography field. Meaning no White House security procedure would be considered really safe if it hasn't been publicly reviewed. Everything else is security through obscurity, and it's bound to be leaked as shown. Just speculating.

      So I totally agree with your underlying point (i.e. Security through obscurity sucks and is stupid). That said I'm not sure how this applies here. This article isn't about the security of an algorithm it's about the fact that someone physically stole an asset.

    5. Re:But... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I still don't understand, though, why the National Archive would think that 100,000 personal records including social security numbers are something that they should be keeping around. Since we've already established that there were no 1TB hard drives in 2000, this archive must have been created sometime later. Maybe someone should have thought about it a little bit.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:But... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      Somewhat irrelevant at this point, as most encryption methods in use in 2000 have either been broken, or advances in computer power have rendered them easily crackable.
      There are exceptions, of course, but it would be pure dumb luck that one of these exceptions was used to encrypt, rather than a broken one.

      The real question is, will the current crop of retards realize "Hey....since this info was lost from previous administrations, maybe stuff can be lost for us, too! Maybe these electronic health records for the whole country aren't such a good idea after all....."

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    7. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it's OK, because the data was encrypted, right? RIGHT?

      What happens when a hard drive fails? Pure data is easier to recover and verify than encrypted data that looks like line noise.

    8. Re:But... by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      will the current crop of retards realize

      By current crop of retards, do you mean the administration? The people who put them in office, both, or government in general? I'm wondering because some of them can't bother to be consistently outraged by important things like those required by the PRA to be retained coming up missing when someone attempts to archive them into the digital records system.

      I mean we should be hearing shouts of incompetence and dirty dealings with some conspiracy connected to Hillary or something by now but we haven't. Of course when the same thing happens to Bush's emails, it was worse then the Kennedy assassinations.

      Anyways, if the retards are the current administration and those who put him in office, I think it's more of a don't care as long as it benefits them thing then actually being retarded. However, they do attempt to prove me wrong often.

    9. Re:But... by cheater512 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wait what? What major encryption algorithms have been cracked in the last 15 years or been computationally overpowered?

      MD5 has had a few weaknesses found, but nothing has broken it completely.
      Stuff like RSA have been around for 35 years and are still uncracked.

    10. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Would it make a difference? The official "encryption" of the Clinton era to be pushed upon us blood and bread accepting masses had a dual key that the NSA or some gov agency could use. Back then, DES (not triple) was also considered acceptable.

      The real problem is how the hell a drive like that gets lost or stolen. It's one thing for crappy network security, but when physical things of some importance are getting lost, who's running the joint?

    11. Re:But... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      will the current crop of retards realize

      By current crop of retards, do you mean the administration? The people who put them in office, both, or government in general?

      Yes.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    12. Re:But... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      If they used RSA, yes. It would still be unbreakable, that we know of.

      But when we're talking about government information here, I'm sure there are certain other governments around the world that would throw a significant amount of computing power at breaking whatever encryption was used.

      If it was something involving MD5, you can be pretty sure it would be broken into fairly quickly.

      And this is the US government we're talking about. If they encrypted this stuff in 2000, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find they'd used DES, which was broken in 1994.

      Or they could have used Coconut98, which was published in 1998 (only two years old! Must be good, because it's new!).
      Then, it would have been broken only 4 years ago, in 2005.

      Yes, there are some like RSA, AES, and IDEA that haven't been broken yet. But that would entail the government to know what the hell they're doing. And for the past several decades, they've proven pretty conclusively that they don't.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    13. Re:But... by omglolbah · · Score: 1

      Or it could be that the person reporting the missing item doesnt know the difference between a single external drive and a multi-drive external storage box.

      Or it could be a case of a raid from some server being moved to a recently produced external drive as part of the archiving process. A raid of 1 TB isnt unreasonable to have had around during the clinton administration. Keeping it as a raid on a server would be horribly costly compared to stuffing the data onto an external drive.

      I dont care either way, but claiming the lack of a 1TB drive means the archive was created later is silly.

    14. Re:But... by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      But it's OK, because the data was encrypted, right? RIGHT?

      Except that the purpose of putting this data on this hard drive was so that the National Archives would have free access to it, so that they could convert it into another format, encrypting as necessary. Yes, they could have encrypted it first, and given the National Archives the password along with the drive, but I'd be willing to bet they didn't.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    15. Re:But... by JackieBrown · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If this harddrive was from the Bush administration, would we be worried about the encryption or screaming of another cover up?

    16. Re:But... by cheater512 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Government has the NSA advising it, so no weak encryption would be used.

      But it wasnt encrypted in the first place which shows that they were lazy, but not *completely* incompetent.

    17. Re:But... by LaskoVortex · · Score: 3, Funny

      Silly ciggieposeur, you forgot the tags and got your ass mod slapped.

      --
      Just callin' it like I see it.
    18. Re:But... by Chris+Daniel · · Score: 3, Funny

      ... when ever I enter a classified area we are searched.

      And when you exit, I hope ...

      --
      Don't blame me -- I voted for Roslin.
    19. Re:But... by MukiMuki · · Score: 1

      Could be one of those "mini" hard drive vaults. How uncommon were 4 320GB drives be back then? (enough to do nearly a terabyte with one drive dedicated to parity, a near-requirement for NAS's like that)

    20. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      But it's OK, because the data was encrypted, right? RIGHT?

      Actually it was left on the 08:14 train from Clapham Junction to London Victoria by an Mi5 employee this morning.... You just can't get the staff anymore :(

    21. Re:But... by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Is it also possible that as larger hard drives were available that the data from other smaller drives was combined on? This is the government we're talking about here.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    22. Re:But... by eam · · Score: 1

      Life is algorithms. There's an algorithm for starting a car. There's an algorithm for balancing your checkbook. There's an algorithm for building a house. There's an algorithm for baking a cake.

      In this case, there was an algorithm that defined how you could access and store a hard disk containing sensitive information, but the algorithm was flawed. Someone could have reviewed the algorithm and may have seen a problem.

      Process for handling secure media
            1) Retrieve media from secure location
            2) Leave media in insecure location
            3) ???
            4) Profit!!!

    23. Re:But... by myspace-cn · · Score: 1

      I have to reply, since out of ALL these posts I haven't seen one stating the obvious.

      Not only are you searched, but your name, (or man number), can simply be read from the vault inventory list with "exactly what is in your possession" from the vault. The "time" you signed it out, the "time" you signed it in and put it back on the shelf and it was verified by at least one person.

      Right? Right?!!

      So my question is, who's man number is in the forms, for the item? Go there, and find where the drive is.

      Until then, you have 100 folks with line-badges that need to be revoked, and detained.

    24. Re:But... by benedictaddis · · Score: 1

      MD5 is a hash function.

    25. Re:But... by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      It was. Just check the date -- this Clinton hard-drive was lost during the later part of the Bush administration. This throws your theory to bits, doesn't it.

    26. Re:But... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      Encryption isn't weak until it's broken.

      And if the NSA are advising them, and they're following the advice don't you think it would have been encrypted?

      It wasn't, so they're either not following the NSA's advice, or they're not being advised.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    27. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the NSA says should be used, and what actually gets used are two very different things.

    28. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Meanwhile, a laptop containing credit card information was left on a train leaving Queensbury at 09:16, bound for Knightsbridge. Assuming standard rail speeds, will the two data breaches be able to be brought together?
      For bonus points, identify the station where the two sets meet.

    29. Re:But... by Bicx · · Score: 1

      Stuff like RSA have been around for 35 years and are still uncracked.

      As far as we know! ::puts on tinfoil hat::

    30. Re:But... by fooslacker · · Score: 1

      Life is algorithms.

      No, life is data + algorithms.

      Ok if were going to parse semantics and play with definitions then I don't agree with the underlying point, obscurity is an important component of security. "Security through obscurity" is always a bad thing when related to mathematical or technical proofs of a securing mechanism or process. The whole concept of security is the obscurity of data, however. Separate the idea of a process and the data. The location of the physical asset you want to steal is data. You should want this kept secret. The manner of the secret keeping is the process or algorithm. This benefits from review.

      When we play these word games we really just distract from the issue of how to make things better and being overly zealous of a given idea and trying to apply it to everything isn't practical. The principle of opening up process/algorithms for review is a good one. Treating it like a religion and saying that anytime something goes wrong mean they should have shared more info is blindly following that principle and not really understanding what it applies to and what it doesn't.

      Since I'm part of the problem (focusing on word games and definitions) I have really no idea if this discussion even applies to this case anymore but I assume you at least get my point.

    31. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could be one of those "mini" hard drive vaults. How uncommon were 4 320GB drives be back then? (enough to do nearly a terabyte with one drive dedicated to parity, a near-requirement for NAS's like that)

      Very uncommon. In 99, 40gb drives were still $100 each, 80 were the brand new spanking omg drives. You would need an array of 20+ to make 1tb.

      Now, the entire article and press may confuse Hard drives with Tape, which you COULD have 1tb of tape data then.

    32. Re:But... by jd · · Score: 1

      If the trains crash into each other, will that constitute a data collision?

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    33. Re:But... by ciggieposeur · · Score: 1

      Yeah I'm a bit surprised to see people here on Slashdot who have no recollection of Phil Zimmerman's battle with Clinton's administration, or the Clipper chip fiasco.

    34. Re:But... by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Why? Did the Clinton's and everyone working with them disappear during that timeframe?

      Could that tape have had more information that shows that the Clinton's could have prevented 9/11 before Bush even hit office? And before a new president can try to start new hearings, it disappears?

      Don't know, don't really care, but I do know that the timeline does not affect what I said in the slightest.

      In fact, I didn't even state it was a coverup. I asked what the Slashdot reaction would be (and judging by yours being the only response, I guess I have my answer.)

  3. Hmm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is it just me, or is "Clinton-era data" slang for "jizz"?

  4. A "secure" area by Mad+Merlin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area...

    Obviously not secure enough.

    1. Re:A "secure" area by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

      The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area...

      Obviously not secure enough.

      C'mon. There was a sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard".

    2. Re:A "secure" area by nate_in_ME · · Score: 1

      This is slashdot, so it's safe to assume that you didn't read the article, however, if the summary can be trusted, the security of the storage area isn't the issue...when I read the summary, I got the impression that it was legitimately removed from the secure storage and basically taken to someone's desk to be worked on. While it was out of storage is when it disappeared. Hence the "area where 100 badge holders had access" comment at the end of the summary.

    3. Re:A "secure" area by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and yet it was not obvious enough to not warrant posting that information, obviously.

    4. Re:A "secure" area by sortius_nod · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uhh, the security is the issue. Why was such a sensitive device allowed to be removed from a secure area into an "area where 1000 badge holders had access"? As with all "secure" systems, the biggest security issue is people. If you're not going to enforce security then there's no point having it.

    5. Re:A "secure" area by mysidia · · Score: 0

      But apparently the thief wasn't too concerned about it, perhaps they were running white box PC hardware that can't actually run Apple's Operating System; so the Leopard couldn't hurt them.

    6. Re:A "secure" area by ruin20 · · Score: 1

      "beware of the leopard"

      I didn't know anyone in the government used a mac!

      --
      Oh honey look... How cute... an angry slashdotter!
    7. Re:A "secure" area by Thinboy00 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area...

      Obviously not secure enough.

      C'mon. There was a sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard".

      ...At the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory... In the basement, where the lights and stairs had gone out...

      I'm not quite enough of a geek to quote it verbatim, though.

      --
      $ make available
    8. Re:A "secure" area by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1
      --
      $ make available
    9. Re:A "secure" area by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      where at least 100 'badge-holders' had access to it

      Never Trust a Hippy, Never Trust a Badge-Holder. The first wave of neoneopunk movement.

    10. Re:A "secure" area by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      At the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory... In the basement, where the lights and stairs had gone out...

      ... You've been eaten by a Grue!

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    11. Re:A "secure" area by King_TJ · · Score: 1

      Yeah... but whoever took this drive obviously knew they didn't even use OS X....

  5. Data missing again by Jurily · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Any finance-sensitive and/or war crime reports on that disk I wonder...

    1. Re:Data missing again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any finance-sensitive and/or war crime reports on that disk I wonder...

      What, like when Clinton ordered the bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan?

      Yes, a pharmaceutical factory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_pharmaceutical_factory

    2. Re:Data missing again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fiance-sensitive.... war crime reports...

      I knew it!

  6. QUICK!!!! by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Somebody check Sandy Berger's underwear!!!

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re:QUICK!!!! by Bemopolis · · Score: 3, Funny

      GAAAH! You just blinded the eyes in my mind! MINDBLINDER!

      --
      "I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
    2. Re:QUICK!!!! by GrandpaLeaman · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe it was pictures OF Sandy Berger's underwear!

    3. Re:QUICK!!!! by night_flyer · · Score: 2, Funny

      His socks couldn't be reached for comment

      --


      Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
      Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
    4. Re:QUICK!!!! by Perf · · Score: 1

      Or Fawn Hall's bra?

    5. Re:QUICK!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit, beat me to it. For the too lazy to Google:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Berger#Unauthorized_removal_of_classified_material

    6. Re:QUICK!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny. I just saw pictures of Clinton with his hand on Fran Drescher's ass, which means there's a good chance that's where he'd put his hard-disk, amirite?

    7. Re:QUICK!!!! by kenh · · Score: 1

      In case you are wondering what Vinegar Joe is talking about...

      http://gogov.com/bergerwatch.htm

      --
      Ken
  7. What does this have to do with the Clinton Admin? by Nimey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Besides having data from back in that time frame. It's interesting that the summary doesn't point out that it was lost in the latter part of the Bush administration, and the story mentions the timeframe without being as balatant about who was in power.

    I sense partisanship.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  8. Whoops, my bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I just needed somewhere to store some more of my cigar porn collection.
    -- Bill

  9. Zinger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was wrapped up in this stained blue dress . . .

  10. 1TB from ten years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A 1TB hard drive from the Clinton era? I would have killed for 250MB back then! Proof, I guess, that the government really *does* get the good stuff first.

    1. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by Swampash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The article says "data from the Clinton administration", not "hard drive from the Clinton administration".

    2. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by nizo · · Score: 1

      Yeah all the 100GB drives the data was on originally have been taken home by employees or sold on ebay already.

    3. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by mikael · · Score: 4, Informative

      This wouldn't be your desktop PC 3.5" hard disk drive or a 2.5" laptop drive. This would be an server-class hard disk drive the size of a briefcase

      Network attached storage

      Lacie hard disk drive

      The problem is, it probably didn't look like a piece of computer equipment and ended up being moved somewhere totally different.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    4. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those are not server class hard disks, those are NAS(Network-attached storage) enclosures, which are basically a raid of 3.5" hard disks.

    5. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by egcagrac0 · · Score: 1

      Neither TFS nor TFA specified that it was a vintage drive.

      TFS and TFA specified it was an "external drive" holding vintage data.

      It is completely reasonable to expect that every few years or so, they migrate data to more modern containers (drives). The National Archive could very reasonably have already moved a copy of the data off a NAS and onto a modern external USB drive.

      Also, TFA did not specify that the only copy of the data was lost - this further makes me think that someone plugged in a USB drive, copied the data from the Big Drive to the modern portable drive, took that portable drive to their workstation so they could start chunking through the reformatting, and then the portable drive got misplaced/swiped/etc.

    6. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The National Archive could very reasonably have already moved a copy of the data off a NAS and onto a modern external USB drive.

      In what universe would this be reasonable?

      The only thing that really makes sense is to move the data off a NAS and onto tape, which lasts a hell of a lot longer than hard disks. Or, of course, to move the data off of one NAS, and onto another.

      Perhaps they copied the data, and then the old NAS went out the door in the wrong direction, i.e. instead of going to the destruction facility, it went into someone's truck. The question then becomes, was the data of strategic importance, or did some geek who felt underappreciated just want to snag one of these arrays rather than see it go to the crusher, and as a result prepare himself for his own personal vision of hell when the authorities catch up with him?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      ...and the hilarious part is, that I am wrong. They certainly copied it off of something onto a disk. The only question in my mind is, why the fuck would you ever do that? Adding a copy step? Fail.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by mysidia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What? No.

      Lacies are not enterprise class server drives, they are external HDDs intended for workstation and portable applications, and ioSafe didn't exist during the Clinton administration, they were founded in 2004. The ReadyNAS which you linked to a picture of didn't exist until a few years ago.

      The products you link to are highly specialized consumer-grade/small-business solutions.

      Enterprise class server drives REALLY are 3.5" standard drives, that you could plug into any workstation with the required SCSI/SAS support

      Server grade NASes and SANs are not 'closed boxes' the size of a briefcase; some of them are 1U/2U (size of a briefcase), but multiple standard hard drives get plugged into them.

      What sets apart Enterprise class server drives from consumer grade disk drives is: speed, interface, and reliability.

      A typical enterprise-level server drive is: 3.5" SAS (or SCSI), 15,000 RPMs. With a high MBTF.

      A typical consumer grade drive is: 3.5" or 2.5" SATA (or IDE/ATA), 5400 RPMs or slower. With a lower MBTF (shorter expected lifetime).

      I think the only reasonable explanation here really is that the data was migrated to new hardware.

      This makes sense; older drives will eventually fail due to bit rot and mechanical issues, if hard drives are placed in storage, they should be spun up at least once a month, to avoid mechanical degradations.

      The safest most convenient way to keep info available for archives and safe from bit rot is to consolidate it on large disk drives

      Though I think their practice of letting workers move the drives around is a mistake.

      They _should_ be plugged into some type of server device.

      Drives should never be allowed to leave a special secure area that personal possessions (things like bags) aren't allowed in.

      And there should be thorough 24 hour video surveillance of said secure area.

    9. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by egcagrac0 · · Score: 1

      In the universe where there is a secure central storage network which is wholly isolated from workstations and the internet.

      I'd say that sneakernet is a perfectly valid technology to isolate The National Archive from potential viruses, unvalidated code (lab/test network), fat fingering, and guys named Larry or Glenn.

      I've met guys named Larry and Glenn. No way I'd trust them near my data archive.

    10. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 2, Informative

      This wouldn't be your desktop PC 3.5" hard disk drive or a 2.5" laptop drive. This would be an server-class hard disk drive the size of a briefcase
       
      No.
       
      It is a two terabyte Western Digital MY BOOK external hard drive, measuring 6.5 x 2.1 x 5.4 inches.
       
      Citation here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/20/lost.hard.drive.clinton/index.html

      --
      If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    11. Re:1TB from ten years ago? by SteeldrivingJon · · Score: 1

      From the CNN article: "More than 110 4-millimeter tape cartridges were copied onto the hard drive. The records included records from the Clinton Administration Executive Office of the President."

      --
      September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
  11. Remember? by arizwebfoot · · Score: 1, Funny

    When 4 mg of ram was screamin?

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
    1. Re:Remember? by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

      4 milligrams of ram isn't even enough to make a lamb sandwich, let alone scream.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re:Remember? by camperdave · · Score: 2, Funny

      It depends on where you inject it, I suppose.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Remember? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Oh, would somebody please mod this funny? :)

    4. Re:Remember? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean it made the ram and not the ewe scream?

    5. Re:Remember? by TinFoilMan · · Score: 2, Funny

      I guess where you put the 4 mg WOULD make the ram scream!

      --
      In my other life, I eat cats.
    6. Re:Remember? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You know you're a nerd when a joke about a typo in the specification of units makes you laugh out loud. *holds out card to be stamped* Stuff like this is why I keep coming back here.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Remember? by bertoelcon · · Score: 1

      I like how the response from the typo is better than would have been expected from what was meant to be said.

      --
      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  12. A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by BTM1001 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I call shenanigans (or bad reporting) on this story. There were no 1TB hard drives 9 years ago (except maybe in HD manufacturers labs). You might have had an external array, but not a drive. I don't remember for sure, but I'd say a single hard drive was max ~250GB in 2000?

    1. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I call shenanigans (or bad reporting) on this story. There were no 1TB hard drives 9 years ago (except maybe in HD manufacturers labs). You might have had an external array, but not a drive. I don't remember for sure, but I'd say a single hard drive was max ~250GB in 2000?

      Maybe the original data was archived on a modern device. If you are relying on hard disks it would make sense to move the asset (the data) on to media which you can maintain.

    2. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      s/drive/drives/;

      Seems like a plausible enough explanation for me.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 3, Insightful

      TFA does shed some light:

      -The drive loss occurred between Oct. 2008 and March 2009. TFA also states that the *data* was Clinton era, not the hardware itself. The data could've been census data from the Grover Cleveland administration for all that it matters to the incident. The disappearance occurred during the switch from the W. Bush to Obama administrations.

      -The item stolen was an "external hard drive", which opens up the floor to discussion. Could have been a USB enclosure, could have been an externally attached Fibre Channel storage array.

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
    4. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by pete-classic · · Score: 1

      Well, let's say this twinkie represents the normal size of an external hard drive in the Clinton era . . .

      That's a big twinkie.

      -Peter

    5. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Trikki+Nikki! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I call shenanigans (or bad reporting) on this story. There were no 1TB hard drives 9 years ago (except maybe in HD manufacturers labs). You might have had an external array, but not a drive. I don't remember for sure, but I'd say a single hard drive was max ~250GB in 2000?

      I call shenanigans on your reply. The data was from the Clinton administration. Now I am nowhere near the geek/nerd/intellectual that most /.ers are, but maybe, just maybe, the data was transferred onto the device at some point?

      From an article on the same website as the original linked story (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=913335("Missing drive had no original Clinton records, says National Archives"): "According to the statement released this afternoon, the 2-TB drive was being used for "routine re-copying" as part of a records preservation process. The small 2.5-pound Western Digital MY Book external hard drive contained information from about 113, 4mm tape cartridges and weighs about 2.5 pounds. The tapes contained "snapshots" of the contents of hard drives of employees leaving from the Executive Offices of the President and contained both federal and Presidential records."

      --
      i r in ur /.s girling up ur storiez
    6. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Toveling · · Score: 1

      It's doubtful they have hard disks from 15 years ago lying around. I'm guessing they transfer all the data they have on hard-disks onto new media every 5-10 years. If it's on an 'external hard drive', it doesn't sound like it's part of the main archive, either, likely just data pulled for researchers or what-have-you.

    7. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 1

      This:

      Now I am nowhere near the ... intellectual that most /.ers are...

      Was fucking hilarious.

    8. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      This makes me wonder -- is the data truly lost, or is there just a copy of it floating around in locations unknown? If that drive was used to back up something else, it probably isn't the only copy they have left, thus no data was lost. Inappropriately shared, certainly, but not lost. There appear to be files of a sensitive nature that shouldn't be out in the wild, but this is not losing data, rather it is losing control over the distribution of data.

      Mal-2

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    9. Re:A 1 TB drive 9+ years ago? by Zerth · · Score: 1

      Heck, the drive might not even be lost. Have they checked near the copy machines, like that missing Los Alamos drive?

      Wouldn't be the first time some idiot clerk was asked to copy something and left the original on the platen:)

  13. Hmm.... by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    home addresses of people who visited or worked at the White House. Gee, I can't imagine who would be interested in this information. After all, it's not like anybody in the White House at that time was a well-known philanderer with a brilliant but opportunistic wife who might want to track down some of his late-night "visitors", is it? Maybe it's just our new Secretary of State working on her enemies list. I'm not sure 1 TByte is enough to record all of the bimbos, but at least it's a start.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Hmm.... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1, Funny

      1 TB = Terra-Bimbo?

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After all, it's not like anybody in the White House at that time was a well-known philanderer with a brilliant but opportunistic wife who might want to track down some of his late-night "visitors", is it? Maybe it's just our new Secretary of State working on her enemies list. I'm not sure 1 TByte is enough to record all of the bimbos, but at least it's a start.

      Ummm, the bimbos have been known for quite some time, going all the way back to Arkansas. James Carville and others spent a lot of their time trying to discredit the bimbos.

      Frankly, Bill Clinton disgraced the White House. JFK got to bang Marilyn Monroe. Monica Lewinsky doesn't come close on the babe-o-meter.

    3. Re:Hmm.... by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 1

      Actually the NSA did a warrentless search, and has as of yet to ask for a FISA warrant, as they were unable to find a link between the Clinton Administration and Al Quaeda before the Bush administration ended.

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    4. Re:Hmm.... by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      What do you mean a link between Al Quaeda and Clinton? We know Clinton bailed on a couple of opportunities to assassinate Bin Laden, We know that Clinton and many democrats of the era constantly complained about how big of a threat Al Quaeda and Iraq was. I don't think anyone has ever looked for a link between them other then that nor have they stated one existed.

      Clinton and Al Quaeda were not operating together in any way.

    5. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean a link between Al Quaeda and Clinton? We know Clinton bailed on a couple of opportunities to assassinate Bin Laden, We know that Clinton and many democrats of the era constantly complained about how big of a threat Al Quaeda and Iraq was. I don't think anyone has ever looked for a link between them other then that nor have they stated one existed.

      There's a good video of Al Gore detailing the threats posed by Iraq (including WMD) demanding that the government do something about it. Google for it.

    6. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After all, it's not like anybody in the White House at that time..

      As amusing as your comment is, this occurred during late 2008-early 2009 - well past the White House's Clinton-era.

    7. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because no Clinton holds a high cabinet position in 2009? Don't read the news much, do you?

  14. Re:Incoming by anonymousNR · · Score: 1, Funny

    its probably them who took it on their way out

    --
    -- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
  15. No worries by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Who ever stole it reformatted and is using it for bit torrent porn downloads now.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:No worries by geoskd · · Score: 4, Funny

      Who ever stole it reformatted and is using it for bit torrent porn downloads now.

      And in an odd quirk of fate, filling it back up with the original contents...

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    2. Re:No worries by gmuslera · · Score: 1

      Who ever stole it reformatted and is using it for bit torrent porn downloads now.

      You mean uploads, no?

  16. Hey... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 2, Funny

    They should check the London Underground train system. I hear a lot of missing secret government data ends up there.

  17. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Nimey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've noticed a lot more conservative-leaning folks (and moderators) coming out of the woodwork in the last couple months.

    I suspect it's not that people here have partisan motives so much as it's "cool" to be against whomever is in power. I kind of remember the Old Days of Slashdot in the last Clinton years being this way too.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  18. Re:Incoming by The+Grim+Reefer2 · · Score: 1

    its probably them who took it on their way out

    If it was, they would have been smarter to take the time machine they used to get a 1 TB external drive in 2000.

  19. Mooned by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Why, it's probably with the missing moon-walk tapes.

    All the lost socks go to one place, and all lost gov't media goes to one place. (I don't know where Jimmy Hoffa fits in.)
         

  20. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by davidsyes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since the summary said the disk "is" missing, i was going to chime in (humourously) with "Whether it really IS missing depends on what the meaning of IS IS..."

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  21. Pants? by Culture20 · · Score: 1

    Was it stolen by being stuffed down someone's pants? National Archives' Security is pants.

    1. Re:Pants? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that a 1TB HDD in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?

  22. hard drives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this happened before... did they check in the room next to it?

  23. You mean that thing in my attic...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh... so that's what it was...

  24. Identity Theft by theArtificial · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe identity theft will become more of a concern when it happens to a somebody.

    --
    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
    1. Re:Identity Theft by barzok · · Score: 1

      Maybe identity theft will become more of a concern when it happens to a somebody.

      Worked for slamming the door on "The Auto Warranty Company".

  25. Re:Incoming by Chabo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    but they didn't ruin the place like the most recent outgoing group did.

    How do you know, if the data's been lost?

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  26. Common F. Sense needs no "public review" by geekmux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It'd be nicer if the real world would learn from the cryptography field. Meaning no White House security procedure would be considered really safe if it hasn't been publicly reviewed. Everything else is security through obscurity, and it's bound to be leaked as shown. Just speculating.

    Ah, no public review is necessary when it clearly falls under the guise of Common Fucking Sense. When grasping for words to describe the incompetency here, I believe in the ramblings of of the Bull Durham Coach. This is a simple game. You get the data. You save the data. You encrypt the data. YOU GOT IT?!?

  27. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Omestes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You proved the parents point I think, unless of course your more conservative than not.

    Slashdot always is on the whole for things that you vehemently disagree with. I've been noticing /. become pro-religion, anti-science, and even more towards the libertarian fringe of late. But then again if I was a pro-science, anti-science, libertarian I would probably think that the atheistic pinkos were taking over.

    --
    A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
  28. Re:Incoming by Chabo · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's a 1TB storage device, containing many disks?

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  29. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by kingbyu · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to the article, "the loss is believed to have occurred between October 2008 and March 2009." Thus, the hard drive could have been lost during the Obama presidency.

  30. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Chabo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it's just that you see people criticizing the current administration, and see it as "the Right bashing the Left".

    Some of us just don't like power-hungry politicians, no matter which way they lean socially.

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  31. Also in missing data... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Audio of interview with Monica Lewinski.
    WJ 'Sax' Clinton: Step a little closer and speak into the mike...

  32. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

    I was a pro-science, anti-science, libertarian...

  33. Re:Incoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If we start seeing lots of dirt being dug up on the Clinton administration, now we'll know why.

    not that I'm terribly fond of them, but they didn't ruin the place like the most recent outgoing group did.

    No, the Clinton White House had their own special brand of corruption and evil. The W administration didn't "ruin" the place; the country survived okay, but W acted like he was Caesar, not the President.

    A pox on both their houses, Democrat and Republican, I say.

  34. Re:Incoming by Sun.Jedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but they didn't ruin the place like most recent outgoing group did.

    Pelosi ... still there
    Dodd ... still there
    Frank ... still there
    Kennedy ... still there
    Obama ... got promoted ... still there

    I don't get it. Were you making a joke?

  35. Re:Incoming by The+Grim+Reefer2 · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's a 1TB storage device, containing many disks?

    I know this is Slashdot but the first sentence in TFS is: "An external hard drive that's believed to contain nearly 1TB of data..."

  36. eBay by cstdenis · · Score: 4, Funny

    Check eBay.

    --
    1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
    1. Re:eBay by EdIII · · Score: 1

      Actually considering this was from the Clinton Administration, check the Adult Section at Craigslist.

  37. No car analogy by thethibs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How do we put this in terms this gang can understand?

    How often has an IT admin, just doing his job, backed up sensitive HR files to an unsecured backup medium stored in an unsecured area? What? Encrypt the backup just for a few HR files? The files are scattered all over the SAN. Too much trouble. Besides, they're safe here. There's just eighteen admins with access to the area. Yah--the same eighteen people who know the one password we use for all the databases.

    In an Archive, the preservationists are the "techies". They keep the archive available. These are the guys who keep building indexes and copying stuff from old media to new media so it's always readable. They are the "backup people", and like most IT admins, they don't let anything get in the way of doing what they believe is their mission.

    What most likely happened was that, instead of taking their equipment into the high security zone to process the sensitive information in there, they brought the sensitive information out to their equipment in the low security zone. It was the expedient thing to do. I think also illegal.

    No conspiracy here, just laziness and a lack of security awareness.

    --
    I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
    1. Re:No car analogy by bertoelcon · · Score: 1

      No conspiracy here, just laziness and a lack of security awareness.

      That doesnt sound like laziness, sounds like sticking to a known way to do things easy and on a managable timeframe.

      --
      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
    2. Re:No car analogy by twostix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You have absolutely *no* basis for any of what you just said.

      You've fabricated a complete fantasy and presented it as fact, you are the person you rail against - a conspiracy theorist of a slightly different stripe.

      There's a million explanations of what could have happened. The only rational thing to do is wait for some ort of investigation to produce results. To present a fantasy of your own making then state that it's case closed is the hieght of stupidity.

      The fact that you are modded to +5 insightful glaringly shows the extreme need for the people in this tiny little group to believe that everything in life is peachy squeaky clean and just an innocent accident. Thank god none of you are cops, nobody would ever be arrested!

      "See officer what happened is the person was just cleaning my gun and it accidently shot and then the wind blew their money into my pocket. As you know there's no such thing as malice!"

    3. Re:No car analogy by myspace-cn · · Score: 1

      A manageable time-frame, is no excuse for not protecting classified, secret, or top secret information, it's a serious security breach, which seems to be rampant throughout government agencies as of late.

      At minimum, it's a reason to revoke all line-badges, and force everyone to prove innocence, be detained, disciplined, fired, jailed, and possibly executed.

      We got seriously corrupt people walking the halls of our government offices, accessing networks, and abusing power, masking crimes under the guise of "state secrets", re-writing history, and blackmail.

      This isn't your telemarketing network admin job, backing up the number list, it's fucking tyrany, and treason! And all you nay-Sayers need to wake the fuck up from your dreamworld, and smell the coup.

      You don't fucking TRUST anyone!

      1. Not the media.
      2. Not your poll worker when you vote.
      3. Not even me.

      You validate, you prove it.

      At the top of the thread I suggested the man number who checked out the device, should be questioned, but what if one of the other 100 line badges stole the item? A setup for someone who may be patriotic but screwed the pooch on a lunch break, or actually filled all paperwork out correctly, but someone penetrated the area and stole it.

      Who had access?
      Who has motive?

  38. Re:Incoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because we all know that every random reporter is intimately familiar with the difference between an external storage device and an external storage drive.

  39. File Sharing by Swimsc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I bet it turns up, through file sharing, on a PC in Iran.

  40. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Kaboom13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, you sense partisanship, your own. The article didn't say or even imply the Clinton admin spirited away the data, fuck 1 tb drives didn't even exist in his administration. The article title is "Hard drive with Clinton-era data missing from National Archives". As in, a hard drive with Clinton era existed (ie they didnt destroy/lose the data before it was transferred to the archives) and now it is missing. The article clearly says "The drive was discovered missing in early April and the breach was immediately reported to senior officials at the NARA".

    Furthermore it is being reported on by ComputerWorld, a site about tech news that doesn't exactly seem to have some grand political agenda (unless that agenda is to point out exactly how incompetent the IT staff at the National Archives is).

    It's clear the partisan element here is you, and your thinking has become so clouded you are seeing conspiracies where there aren't any. We have a name for that, it is called paranoia. Paranoia seems to be behind a lot of the mistakes the Bush administration made, perhaps you should learn from their mistakes.

    Data archives should be encrypted where possible, and data archives stored on external drives should always be encrypted. Furthermore, Social Security numbers of Clinton era staffers should have been purged in the first place, as there is no historical reason to save them and plenty of reason to delete them. This is a fuck-up by the National Archives, and they should be held accountable for their fuck-up. There is no reason to complicate the matter with politics.

  41. CNN was reporting it was 2TB by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They were actually reporting it as a single *2TB* external hard drive.

    Of course it was one of the total airhead reporters and CNN is known for not even taking to their own IT folks down the hall to make sure something they are saying about technology even makes sense on their surface.

  42. Re:Incoming by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As well as that....nearly 1TB of data, if compressed, could take up 300GB of space, or less.

    Depending on the data, of course.

    If it's just a bunch of excel files with personal info in them, they'll compress quite well.
    If it's .bmp files of everybody's fingerprints, it will also compress well.

    If it's binary biometric data (unlikely) then it won't compress well at all.

    --
    "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  43. Re:Incoming by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2, Funny

    How do you know, if the data's been lost?

    Because there's no evidence of it, of course!!

    --
    "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  44. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Miseph · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Just because there is an apparent contradiction doesn't make it untrue.

    Science is flawed when it surmises that there is no relevant biological difference between races, or that human pollution is devastating to the environment and needs to be curbed. Science is absolutely true when it indicates that... um... well you get the idea.

    --
    Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  45. Sandy Berger by MacColossus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sandy Berger borrowed it. I'm sure he will return it soon with no revisions made. :-) http://articles.latimes.com/2005/apr/02/nation/na-berger2

  46. Re:Incoming by darkpixel2k · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it's .bmp files of everybody's fingerprints, it will also compress well.

    Nope--it's one file. It's the .bmp of Monica Lewinski for her photo ID badge. It's a lot of pixels.

    --
    There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
  47. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

    [from his sig]
    --
    I completely disagree with every word of the above post.

    I completely disagree with every word of the above post, including the sig at the end.

    --
    $ make available
  48. No, he didn't have relations with that hard drive. by Neanderthal+Ninny · · Score: 2, Funny

    Also wag that finger on that dais.

  49. Hmmm by gringofrijolero · · Score: 1

    Probably has stuff about Haiti. Pretty colorful stuff there, and now he's a "special envoy"? Oooookay...

    --
    Todos mis movimientos están friamente calculados
  50. 1998 Called by davesays · · Score: 0

    They want their hard drive back...

  51. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by INT_QRK · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'll call your BS. Quote from article: "the loss is believed to have occurred between October 2008 and March 2009." Seems the time of uncertainly lies equally in both administrations, which you spin to the left. Partisanship indeed.

  52. Google Why Clinton Was Russian Spy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and you will find that when Clinton became aware that his one-liner, "You're Outnumbered Ten To One", in a c.1970 Russian propaganda film was on the net, he got in Whitehouse visitors from Microsoft to help close down the site. Guess what? They failed. It's still there after ten years.

  53. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by bertoelcon · · Score: 1

    According to the article, "the loss is believed to have occurred between October 2008 and March 2009." Thus, the hard drive could have been lost during the Obama presidency.

    How do you not notice something is gone that long, I wake up or come home and my piles of stuff in my room arent where I left them, I sence a disturbance before I open the door. That was in a "secured" area for ~6 months too, not ~6 hours.

    --
    Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  54. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

    That's because it was lost between the last few months of the Bush Administration (October 2008) and the first couple of months of the Obama Administration (March 2009). So this is actually an example of an unbiased article as there is, at this time, no way of knowing under which Administration it went missing.
    Personally, it seems likely to me that someone took it in order to get a free external hard drive and it has already been wiped (probably not securely).

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  55. I'm doubting that... by rnturn · · Score: 1

    ...the thief was interested in the SS numbers of White House visitors. ("Score! The social security numbers of all the NCAA and World Series champions of the '90s!") Much more likely is that someone saw the drive on the shelf and said to themselves: "Whoa! A terabyte?! That'll hold all of my pr0n collection with some room left over for more."

    --
    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  56. Re:Incoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um... he was only referring to the outgoing people... persons still there were excluded from the parameters of parent's comment.

    I'm not taking sides on this battle, at least not today, just pointing that out.

  57. Re:Incoming by Sun.Jedi · · Score: 1

    whoosh

  58. Easy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It should be easy to find -- just check with Sandy "Pants" Berger...

  59. Re:Incoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man there are a lot of idiotic posts here.

    A national archive, copying data onto modern devices for archival purposes doesn't lose data when a device goes missing. They probably cross-referenced the device with one of its other redundant copies to double-check just what sensitive data has been potentially leaked outside their audited data handling system. This is a poorly worded "unauthorized records release" event being sensationalized.

  60. Re:Incoming by Rip+Dick · · Score: 2, Funny

    doosh

  61. Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The missing HDD is full of Bill's top-secret porn. No question about it.

  62. This is the least of our problems by sendro · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have seen first hand the decommissioning processes for IT equipment. If companies and the general public had any ideas what happens to "your secure data" you would just be shocked and amazed. Your valuable data is put in a container and shipped over seas to various countries which basically pay per the KG. Your network may be secure, but once decommissioned your data is basically available to anyone.

  63. Did anyone check... by SupremoMan · · Score: 1

    Monica Lewinsky?

  64. CNN reports by recharged95 · · Score: 1
    They were My Book portable hard drives. Basically, the Archives were using USB drives for backups (today) vs and that there were 1TB drives back in 2000 is incorrect.

    Still, this plainly says: dysfunctional gov't.

    And in the end, the gov't doesn't care about your private information: it's to expensive to maintain and they would be held accountable. They rather sell it to the highest bidder or sell the maintenance to the lowest bidder.

  65. manual converting from digital to digiatl ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "converting information from the drive to a digital records system"
    That sounds more like "making a selection" than "converting". If they really are manually replacing social security numbers with zeros, then it's a very clever slowing tactic.

  66. Yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um, like why would anyone store long term data on a hard drive anyway, doesn't say much for the brains of that department, even a monkey knows a hard drive shouldn't be used for backup

  67. Was it because it contained the address by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

    It was a last minute attempt to avoid being caught with his pants down by his wife, he told the SS
    to erase or remove any trace of Monica's address so his wife could not find out....too bad he couldn't burn the dress.

  68. 1TB of Clinton's XXX videos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After sifting thru all the log files and uninteresting stuff, it was found that the former president had video recordings of all his White House "encounters" with staff so he could savor them later. Then all that mess about Monica and others changed his plans.... but it was too late!

  69. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since the summary said the disk "is" missing, i was going to chime in (humourously) with "Whether it really IS missing depends on what the meaning of IS IS..."

    ""Is," "is." "is" -- the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment."

    --Robert Anton Wilson

  70. Pfft, this is easy... by dwiget001 · · Score: 1

    ... just locate Sandy Berger and start interrogating him.

    We'll find that he stashed it in a construction site for recovery later.

    CASE SOLVED!

  71. hmm by davidmcg · · Score: 1

    ia this Bills pr0n collection?

  72. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by jd · · Score: 1

    ISIS is an interior gateway routing protocol.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  73. Mandatory by trickotomy · · Score: 1
    FTA:

    Among those whose information is on the list is one of then-Vice President Al Gore's three daughters

    ManBearPig stole it.

  74. Re:What does this have to do with the Clinton Admi by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    When i think "Isis", i think "Oh Mighty ISISSISSISSSS..." (the TV show, hehehe)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secrets_of_Isis

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  75. Remember Los Alamos! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

    If only my mod points hadn't expired.

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    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  76. You mean Identity Fraud? by SonicSpike · · Score: 1

    There is no such thing as identity theft. One cannot steal one's identity. You can someone's identity fraudulently, but you can't steal it.

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    Libertas in infinitum
  77. Re: missing clinton era docs by jwk4946 · · Score: 1

    Has anyone checked Sandy Berger's socks