The Cost of Cleaning Up After the Navy's "Electronic Spillage"January 09, 2009
A new report by the Navy reveals that it is paying about $5 million a year to EDS, a Texas-based technology service provider, to wipe out any traces of classified digital information that wound up on unsecured laptops or other computers. That doesn't sound like such a terrible price to clean up this "electronic spillage," but an article in The Washington Times suggests that the Navy is paying almost 10 times as much for the services as it would to simply destroy and then replace the affected computers. EDS charges the Navy $11,800 to fix each spillage and had to sweep clean about 432 compromised computers. "Replacing a hard drive or the entire laptop would be significantly cheaper," an official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Washington Times. But an official navy spokesman, Cmdr. Cappy Surette, said that the price for EDS's service is reasonable because the process often requires more than just cleaning a single laptop or computer. It can involve having to clean up to 7,000 computers on a shared network. The Navy report also disclosed that the number of "electronic spillage" incidents is rising. |
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