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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] House report faults DOE computer access by foreign nationals
From:       cult hero <jericho () dimensional ! com>
Date:       1999-05-27 8:56:40
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Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwon@kizmiaz.dis.org>

House report faults DOE computer access by foreign nationals

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0524/web-doe-5-25-99.html

(Federal Computer Week) [5.25.99] A report issued today about theft of
U.S. nuclear secrets by China concludes that the Energy Department has
been too free in granting foreign nationals access to its supercomputers. 

The report, by the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and
Military/Commercial Concerns With the People's Republic of China, said DOE
officials are required to review whether such access violates federal
export controls. But the report also said lab officials "lack an essential
understanding" of the export rules. The report cited interviews with
Commerce Department officials who said they did not recall ever receiving
a license application to "export" the technology from any of the labs.

Although the systems or software are not physically exported, use of the
technology by some foreign nationals is called a "deemed export"  because
sending the technology overseas would require a license. The report said
the labs do not measure the power of their systems in such a way that they
could determine which systems are subject to the export rules, and lab
officials never asked Commerce how to determine if the DOE systems were
subject to export control.
 
The report also concluded that foreign graduate students and staff at U.S.
universities who are conducting DOE-supported research have the same
computer privileges as students who are U.S. citizens, even though some of
the foreign students are affiliated with their countries' intelligence
agencies.

The report noted that DOE is preparing a counterintelligence plan that
addresses these issues.

-o-
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