据 Enda Curran 报道：美联储的内部监督机构警告称，鉴于有离职员工可能擅自删除了机密信息，该机构需要加强对机密信息的监管。这一警告来自总监察长办公室（Office of Inspector General）发布的一份管理警报，该警报是针对离职员工离职流程进行的审计的一部分。审计发现：2024 年 2 月，美联储国际金融部门的一名员工宣布了退休计划，并表示希望在离职前删除相关文件。不过，该员工的姓名在警报中并未被公开。
By Enda Curran The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog warned the central bank needs to tighten oversight of classified information after a departing employee potentially removed classified information. The warning came in a so-called management alert issued by the Office of Inspector General as part of an audit into the off-boarding process for departing employees. The audit found an example of an employee in the central bank’s Division of International Finance who in February 2024 announced plans to retire and a desire to remove files before their departure. The person wasn’t named in the alert.
在离职前，这名员工因将可能包含敏感信息的联邦公开市场委员会（Federal Open Market Committee）文件打印、复制并发送至多个个人电子邮件地址，或将这些文件传输到未经加密的、由美联储提供的 USB 设备中，从而触发了超过 270 起内部警报。
Before leaving, the employee triggered more than 270 internal alerts due to printing, copying and sending potentially sensitive Federal Open Market Committee information to multiple personal email addresses and transferring potentially sensitive files to an unencrypted, Fed-issued USB device. The outgoing employee traveled in June 2024 to a country designated by the Fed as restricted. Upon returning, the employee triggered additional alerts by printing information at the office on a weekend before traveling internationally again.
2024 年 6 月，这名离职员工前往了美联储列为“限制访问”的国家；回国后，他又在出国旅行前的一个周末在办公室内打印了相关文件，再次引发了警报。
The staffer retired in July 2024 and, after being contacted in September of that year to return the emails and printed documents, the former employee said they would respond but had tight deadlines on other matters. The former employee didn’t respond again according to the IG.
该员工于 2024 年 7 月正式退休。同年 9 月，当美联储要求其归还电子邮件和已打印的文件时，该员工表示会予以回应，但称自己有其他紧急事务需要处理。据总监察长办公室称，该员工此后再未作出任何回应。
The staffer retired in July 2024 and, after being contacted in September of that year to return the emails and printed documents, the former employee said they would respond but had tight deadlines on other matters. The former employee didn’t respond again according to the IG. The IG detailed how the departing employee had already been flagged for a previous incident for copying hundreds of classified files to an unencrypted USB device in 2021 and attempting to send classified information to their personal email in 2023.
总监察长办公室还指出：这名员工此前曾因在 2021 年将数百份机密文件复制到未经加密的 USB 设备中，以及试图在 2023 年将机密信息发送至个人电子邮件而受到过警告。不过，由于相关记录未能明确说明该员工具体删除了哪些信息，且许多内部警报属于误报，因此缺乏足够的证据来启动正式的不当行为调查。
The Fed watchdog said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to pursue a misconduct investigation, in part because the records didn’t provide clear details on what information the employee had removed and many of the internal alerts were false positives. Still, the handling of the incident was enough to trigger a rebuke of the Fed’s Board of Governors from the IG.
尽管如此，美联储对这一事件的处理仍招致监察长对美联储理事会的斥责。
“Because of our concerns about the board’s diligence in resolving this potential incident, we are issuing a management alert before completing our planned audit,” Michael Horowitz, the Fed’s inspector general, said in a release, which also made nine recommendations for tightening oversight. “This potential incident highlights information security risks and control breakdowns and deficiencies that we believe require the board’s immediate attention.” The warning comes just months after a former senior adviser at the Fed was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to federal investigators looking into whether he shared confidential data with Chinese intelligence operatives. In that case, the IG said the Fed’s risk management procedures weren’t identifying threats to proprietary data and information and lacked a process for identifying critical assets and insider risks.
“鉴于我们对该理事会在解决这一潜在事件时是否尽职尽责存在疑虑，我们在完成原定审计之前发布这项管理警报。”美联储监察长迈克尔·霍罗维茨在一份声明中表示。该声明还提出了九项加强监督的建议。“这一潜在事件凸显了信息安全问题以及控制体系失效和缺陷，我们认为理事会需要立即关注这些问题。”就在发布这一警告的数月前，美联储一名前高级顾问因向联邦调查人员撒谎而被判处三年多监禁；这些调查人员当时正在调查他是否向中国情报人员泄露了机密数据。监察长表示，在该案中，美联储的风险管理程序未能识别针对专有数据和信息的威胁，也缺乏识别关键资产和内部人员风险的流程。
“Because of our concerns about the board’s diligence in resolving this potential incident, we are issuing a management alert before completing our planned audit,” Michael Horowitz, the Fed’s inspector general, said in a release, which also made nine recommendations for tightening oversight. “This potential incident highlights information security risks and control breakdowns and deficiencies that we believe require the board’s immediate attention.” The warning comes just months after a former senior adviser at the Fed was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to federal investigators looking into whether he shared confidential data with Chinese intelligence operatives. In that case, the IG said the Fed’s risk management procedures weren’t identifying threats to proprietary data and information and lacked a process for identifying critical assets and insider risks.