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Investigation Into Huge Loss of Computerized Clinton Data
JOHNSTON http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/20archives.html?ref=us
Published: May 19, 2009
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities are investigating the loss of a computer hard drive containing a huge quantity of personal information from Bill Clinton’s presidency in an apparent security breach at a National Archives record center, government officials said Tuesday.

Government officials briefed on the matter said the breach, which was confirmed in April, involved the loss of a drive containing a terabyte of computerized data, which could include millions of individual pieces of information, including personal information about one of then Vice President Al Gore’s three daughters.

The missing information included Social Security numbers and home addresses of numerous people who visited or worked at the White House, along with other material related to security procedures used by the Secret Service at the White House in the Clinton years.

The National Archives and Records Administration said Tuesday in a statement that the agency “takes very seriously the loss of an external hard drive that contained copies of electronic storage tapes from the executive office of the president of the Clinton administration.”

The archives statement said the hard drive contained “an as-yet-unknown amount of personally identifiable information of White House staff and visitors.”

The agency said that among those it notified of the breach were the White House, representatives of Mr. Clinton, the Homeland Security Department and people whose identifying information might have been on the hard drive.

Other officials said it was not known whether the hard drive had been stolen or accidentally misplaced. They added that it did not appear that classified information related to national security was taken but that analysts had not yet completed their review of the vast quantity of information stored on the drive.

Representative Edolphus Towns, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that he had been told about the missing material on Tuesday after a briefing by the inspector general for the National Archives. Mr. Towns said he was also told that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was conducting a criminal inquiry into the matter.

“I am deeply concerned about this serious security breach at the National Archives,” said Mr. Towns, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

He said in the statement that he would hold additional briefings for lawmakers to determine the magnitude of the loss, what steps were being taken to recover the information and how to prevent future incidents.

It was not clear how anyone could have removed presidential computer records from the highly secured archive in suburban Maryland, although officials said the hard drive was removed from a storage area to a work space that was accessible to many archive employees and visitors.