A computer hacker has stolen a file containing sensitive information about fifteen-hundred workers at a U.S. government agency that guards the country's nuclear weapon stockpile.
Officials of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) testified Friday before a committee of lawmakers in Washington that the data theft happened in September of last year. But top officials of the department said they did not learn about it until this week.
The information stolen included the names, birth dates and government identification numbers of contractors working for the agency.
The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Joe Barton said that nuclear safety administrator Linton Brooks should be fired for failing to inform his superiors of the computer intrusion.
Brooks said bureaucratic confusion prevented the information from reaching his superiors.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AFP.