Recover Lost Documents

Digital files showing an upgrade for one of President Barack Obama’s Marine helicopters were discovered on a file server in Iran late this past February.

Bob Brewin stated in his report for NextGov that Tiversa Inc., a company in Pennsylvania that scans file-sharing networks for government and corporate clients, first discovered the plans for the VH-60N Marine One presidential helicopter on peer-to-peer networks in late 2008.

Keith Tagliaferri, operations director at Tiversa, stated that the company informed the contractor that was the source of the security breach and notified the Defense Department that the files had been stolen. Tiversa discovered the same documents for Marine One on a file server in Tehran in late February and again informed the contractor as well as the Pentagon and the White House.

Brewin reported that, according to a video clip from a Fox news station in Pittsburgh, the files came from the VH-60N cockpit upgrade program, a contract that the Naval Air System Command awarded to Rockwell Collins in March of 2004.

Lt. Clay Doss, a Navy spokesman, stated that they are looking into the matter but did not have additional details to discuss.

The Fox news station reported that the VH-60N files included information on the helicopter’s missile warning and missile countermeasure systems. The documents were stolen because an employee may have downloaded a peer-to-peer program onto his or her computer, which also contained the Marine One file documents. As a result, all of the files on the computer were exposed to anyone on the file-sharing network.

Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is looking into the data leak of the VH-60N, but declined to provide details, stated Pam Tvrdy, a Rockwell spokeswoman.

Tagliaferri stated that they look at 100,000 files a day, and that the company regularly finds documents more sensitive than the blueprints for the upgrade to Marine One.