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Computer security expert Amit Yoran says information on the once-missing Los Alamos hard drives could be dangerous in the wrong hands

VIDEO CNN Legal Analyst Greta Van Susteren interviews security expert Amit Yoran on the Los Alamos hard drives case. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     ARCHIVE: Previous guest interviews by Greta Van Susteren View the archive

Online interview

Computer security expert discusses degree of danger from missing Los Alamos hard drives

June 21, 2000
Web posted at: 6:05 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT)

Information on hard drives missing from Los Alamos National Laboratory could enable someone to detonate a bomb without the official codes -- or disarm a bomb that the U.S. government wants active -- if it fell into the wrong hands, former Pentagon computer security expert Amit Yoran says in an online interview with CNN's Legal Analyst Greta Van Susteren.

The degree of danger, he says, depends on whether the information was made available to someone outside of Los Alamos -- or even posted on the Internet.

Computer drives, maintained by an emergency nuclear response team at Los Alamos, were found missing on May 7, a day before a forest fire forced the evacuation of the lab. They reappeared behind a copying machine in the lab on June 16, in an area that had already been searched several times.

FBI investigators are questioning several lab employees who have given inconsistent statements about how long the files were missing.

Yoran is the president and CEO of RIPTech Secure Solutions, an information security company. He is the former director of the vulnerability assessment program for the U.S. Department of Defense Computer Emergency Response Team. He also designed security architecture for Pentagon computer networks.

CNN Legal Analyst Greta Van Susteren is Law Center Chief Legal Adviser and co-host of 'Burden of Proof'