Sandia Facing Significant Fine From DOE for Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information

Sandia National Laboratories committed six violations of the Department of Energy’s classified information security requirements and faces a $577,500 penalty, according to a Preliminary Notice of Violation released yesterday by the DOE’s Office of Enforcement. The security concern, discovered at SNL’s New Mexico site in July 2012, involved the unauthorized disclosure of classified information in an employee’s presentation. DOE found that the presentation was stored on an unclassified server and, following further investigation, discovered that “beginning as early as 1997 the author had developed approximately 47 separate variations of the 2012 presentation without obtaining requisite classification reviews.”

Variations of the presentation were delivered “on at least three occasions at public venues,” and “approximately 300 Sandia participants in a technical training program had access to electronic versions of the presentations.” Citing Sandia’s failure to conduct classification reviews and “protect and control classified information for more than a decade,” the NNSA has proposed a total penalty of $577,500. Sandia has been given 30 days to submit a response. In a written statement concerning the DOE’s findings, Sandia spokesperson Nancy Salem said, "Sandia has taken this security issue seriously since becoming aware of it in 2012. After discovering and reporting the issue, Sandia analyzed the causes and identified, developed and carried out a series of improvements that will reduce the likelihood of security violations of this kind."