ForensicTec, a company that consults in computer security, said it had easily penetrated dozens of government personal computers, gaining access to no end of interesting and valuable data. Included in their finds were a manual on encrypting messages, a list of secret couriers and their destinations, thousands of personnel records including social security numbers (and more than enough information to obtain fraudulent credit cards for all of those troops), confidential disciplinary letters (which might identify unhappy soldiers who might be willing to betray their commanders and their country), shipping schedules, and much more. The Pentagon insisted that the computers they gained access to were not supposed to have classified information and ordered plans to implement new security accelerated. We reported this earlier, when we described how the FBI had raided the unnamed firm mentioned here. --Stephen V Cole