Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

A sensitive DHS report about anthrax got outed - because it was left in a plane's seat pocket

The Washington Post: A CNN employee traveling by air recently discovered sensitive government documents — detailing how the Department of Homeland Security would respond to a bioterrorism attack coinciding with the Super Bowl — that apparently had been left behind in an airplane seat back pocket, the network reported Monday.

The draft reports outlined ways the department could improve after there had been confusion in recent drills simulating anthrax attacks on Super Bowl Sunday, according to CNN. The reports also came with instructions to keep the documents locked or to shred them when done, the network said.

Images of a cover sheet to the report indicated they were part of DHS’s “BioWatch” program, marked “For Official Use Only” and dated December 2017. The BioWatch program, created in 2001 and operating since 2003, is the “nation’s only system for early warning of an aerosolized biological attack,” according to DHS.

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