Data on 26.5 million veterans stolen from home

[David]

(Reuters) -- Personal data on about 26.5 million U.S. military veterans was stolen from the residence of a Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst who improperly took the material home, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Monday.

The data included names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for the veterans, Nicholson said, but "there is no indication at this time" that the data had been used for identify theft.

Nicholson said the theft of the data took place this month, but declined to identify the employee or the location of the burglary.

"The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. We have a full-scale investigation going on in this," Nicholson told reporters by telephone.

He said the FBI, local law enforcement authorities and his department's inspector general's office were looking into the matter.

"They believe that this was a random burglary and not targeted at this data," Nicholson added, saying there had been a series of burglaries in the community where the employee lived.

Nicholson identified the employee only as a male career department worker, not a political appointee.

He said the employee "took home a considerable amount of electronic data from the VA which he was not authorized to do. It was in violation of our rules and regulations and policies."

[MORTARDUDE]

Hmmmm....this news snippet has much more to it than the VA is letting on, I would think... Thanks for posting !

Larry

[Gimpy]

I've been out at my VA hospital most of the day today and was there when this story broke around noon Eastern time. It is my understanding from speaking with officials at this VA facility that the personal information on this disk is only specific to veterans discharged AFTER 1975. Those discharged PRIOR to 1975 WHERE NOT COMPRMISED!

Still...........a terrible thing nonetheless.

The VA put out this statement a short while ago.

#############

A Statement from the Department of Veterans Affairs

Monday, May 22, 2006; 1:34 PM

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of our policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings. Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA's electronic health records nor any financial information. The employee's home was burglarized and this data wa s stolen. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Appropriate law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the VA Inspector General's office, have launched full-scale investigations into this matter. Authorities believe it is unlikely the perpetrators targeted the items because of any knowledge of the data contents. It is possible that they remain unaware of the information which they possess or of how to make use of it. However, out of an abundance of caution, VA is taking all possible steps to protect and inform our veterans.

VA is working with members of Congress, the news media, veterans service organizations, and other government agencies to help ensure that those veterans and their families are aware of the situation and of the steps they may take to protect themselves from misuse of their personal information. VA will send out individual notification letters to veterans to every extent possible. Veterans can also go to www.firstgov.gov to get more information on this matter. This website is being set to handle increased web traffic. Additionally, working with other government agencies, VA has set up a manned call center that veterans may call to get information about this situation and learn more about consumer identity protections. That toll free number is 1-800-FED INFO (333-4636). The call center will be open beginning today, and will operate from 8 am to 9 pm (EDT), Monday-Saturday as long as it is needed. The call center will be able to handle up to 20,000 calls per hour (260,000 calls per day).

Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson has briefed the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, co-chairs of the President's Identity Theft Task Force. Task Force members have already taken actions to protect the affected veterans, including working with the credit bureaus to help ensure that veterans receive the free credit report they are entitled to under the law. Additionally, the Task Force will meet today to coordinate the comprehensive Federal response, recommend further ways to protect affected veterans, and increase safeguards to prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents. VA's mission to serve and honor our nation's veterans is one we take very seriously and the 235,000 VA employees are deeply saddened by any concern or anxiety this incident may cause our veterans and their families. We appreciate the service our veterans have given their country and we are working diligently to protect them from any harm as a result of this incident.
# # #

[SuperScout]

Nothing good could have come from an employee stealing electronic records. The FBI needs to really squeeze him hard to find out why he took the records, and then send him away for very long time.

"It is my understanding from speaking with officials at this VA facility that the personal information on this disk is only specific to veterans discharged AFTER 1975. Those discharged PRIOR to 1975 WHERE NOT COMPRMISED!" Well, that includes me and several hundred thousand others, so the VA's attempt to minimize the damage is just so much bilge water.

reoccurrence - no such word.

[Gimpy]

Agree with you Scout!

Once again millions of vet's anxiety level is increased by a VA management incompetance. It appears that the onus of responsibility to protect oneself from idenity theft falls on the shoulders of the vets themselves.

It's my understanding that this data analyst works for The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and is not under the 'umbrella' of security requirements recently instituted at the Veterans Health Adminstration (VA Hopsitals & Clinics).


All the Veterans Service Organizations have been screaming and hollering for several years now that this VBA arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs is mismanaged, poorly trained and woefully understaffed and vunerable to some type of disaster due to primarily the UNDERFUNDING of this division. Along with an obvious lack of attention to detail by upper mangement of the VA!

There is no satisfactory explanation of any government employee taking personal information of individual files HOME! We know government employees do not get paid overtime for home work.

This unauthorized removing of information from the secured environment of the VBA is not new. The VSO's have made management aware of it for several yeras now! There have been several recent incidents of Board of Veterans Appeals Adjudicators that were found guilty of taking home case files and veterans appeals information to their residence and even DESTROYING RELEVANT INFORMATION particular to the veterans appeal! This is nothing new!..........Only WORSE this time!

The VA should be REQUIRED to now offer credit card and credit indentity theft insurance FREE OF COST to ALL AFFECTED VETARNS AND THEIR SPOUSES!

We are the ones that now have to look for credit fraud, check bank accounts, etc. while the VA administrators diminish the serious nature of this possible catastrophy. Just when you think you have seen it all----- they manage to out do themselves and probably will be able to sleep very well tonight. It sickens me to no end.

[Seascamp]

The only thing that comes to mind is sloppy, indifferent and caviler attitudes and practices regarding data base management and security.
26 million confidential files just walk out the door and some GS boss bubba says, ?He wasn?t supposed to do that?. Ok, so far so good, agreed, but when a Jr. High gym locker has more security than the VA records facility, and one fig brain can trash the whole operation, we?re not talking a simple lapse in procedure, we?re talking a systemic blowout of mega proportions. And simpletonian concepts like ?He wasn?t supposed to do that? are just too pathetic to merit comment.

I really don't want an answer to this question, but I wonder just how many I.S. management/security 'experts' the VA has on the payroll.

Scamp

[Rebelwitho]

I can see no reason for this employee to take the information home (not for work anyways) unless someone has paid him for this information and he got caught. He should be fired and charged for theft. not paid leave while the investigation is going on.

Getting worse, and worse for Vets.

[SEATJERKER]

...

...IS NOT GOOD,....

...As they say, they "person/persons who have them might not know what they have,..................BULLSHI+,...

...why in the, who in the, wtf,...

...NOW IT'S A CASE WHERE WE HAVE TO COVER OUR OWN A$$E$ DOWN THE LINE FOR IDENITY THEFT, ETC,...

...I don't think so, It goes deeper then that to say that now they know WHO 26.5 million Veterans are,...

...squeeze him as this does'nt seem to be the average,"I took it home by mistake,...

..."Time to buy more bull-ets",...

...

[SuperScout]

Neither an "under-funded" nor "over-funded" governmental agency is a factor in the act of felonious misappropriation. The scumbag in question had an ulterior motive that drove him to commit his crime of thieving a governmental database. All that was needed was one moderately worked IT security puke to secure any and all stuff.

Sadly, I think that this example of grand larceny is actually the government in microcosm; simply magnify the agency/budget, and the amount of fraud, waste, abuse and grand larceny increases proportionately. And corresponding to these crimes is the obverse of what government service is supposed to e all about, serving the people. Instead, we are saddled with role reversal, where we are the servants subject to the whims, condescending attitude, and ineptitude of those that are supposed to be serving us. The more I see of govenrment in action, the more I am reduced to simply wanting the government to do 3 things for me:

1. Guard the coast.
2. Deliver the mail.
3. Leave me the hell alone.