VA notifying 1.8M of missing data

[Bernadette]

AP


BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Department of Veterans Affairs began notifying 1.8 million veterans and doctors Monday that their personal and business information could be on a portable hard drive that has been missing from an Alabama hospital for nearly three weeks.

The hard drive may have contained Social Security numbers and other personal information from about 535,000 individuals and billing information on 1.3 million doctors nationwide, the VA said. That's more than 37 times more people than authorities initially believed were affected.

An employee at the VA medical center in Birmingham reported the external hard drive missing on Jan. 22. The drive was used to back up information on the employee's office computer. It may have contained data from research projects, the department said.

U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (news, bio, voting record) questioned why it took the agency so long to begin sending out notification letters.

"I certainly understand that the VA wanted to get a handle on the facts. But it became very apparent very early on that they had a breach of security," said Davis, a Democrat from Birmingham.

Veterans Affairs officials said they were moving as quickly as they could. "We are providing information as we learn it from an investigation," said spokesman Matt Burns in Washington.

The VA first publicly revealed the equipment was missing 11 days after it was reported, saying then that personal information on as many as 48,000 veterans may have been stolen.

The VA said Monday it doesn't have any reason to believe anyone has misused data from the hard drive, which is also at the center of a criminal investigation. The agency offered a year of free credit monitoring to anyone whose information is compromised.

Davis said the department told him that the missing storage unit included the Social Security numbers and names of about 10,000 people, plus another 525,000 Social Security numbers. The information on doctors includes names and Medicare billing codes, he said.

Last year, a VA executive stepped down from his job and a data analyst was fired after the agency failed to immediately reveal the theft of a laptop computer and disks that contained personal information on 26.5 million veterans.

[MORTARDUDE]

You have to wonder how much data has been lost, stolen, mishandled, or otherwise misused, that the VA doesn't know about .....

Larry

[SuperScout]

From little I know about computers, the removal of a hard drive is not some accidental action. And unless the hard drive needed replacement, there is little reason for its removal, except for nefarious purposes.

Hopefully, a more thorugh report will be forthcoming for the VA, but I woundn't count on it; too much job security actions will doubtless get in the way. It would be interesting to find out who took it, what they did with it, and how much they sold it for.

[Gimpy]

that the wonderful, all powerful Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nickolson PROMISED us last year that this could NEVER happen again?????

Wasn't he supposed to restructure and reorganize ALL VA computer security measures to prevent this from occuring again??

Where did all that money and supposed 'effort' go last year to stop this from happening again?????

Typical-----------MISMANGEMENT AT THE TOP-----SAME OLE, SAME OLD!

[Boats]

This sounds like a conspiracy. It just can't get much better. If it isn't one thing its another. What a system.

[Seascamp]

Organizations that have little or no data base security methodology have no business migrating to distributed processing technology if they value their mission or hides.

The VA may have migrated to distributed processing in columns of bunches but apparently are behaving like they got a ?Big Blue? central processor and ages-old ?dumb terminals?.
One processor with down load authorization, CD write capability and an employee on the take is all that is necessary go for the gold and that is a problem across the board, everywhere. Most hard drives these days can easily fit in a purse or pocket and away it all goes and that complicates the issue, a lot, but a CD takes things to a very different dimension in terms of ?walk away data?.

Scamp

[Robert Ryan]

This crap is getting old. Enough of the BS already, this guy is derelict in his duties and should be relieved immediatley by some one who is not a Yes man.

[Gimpy]

so damn unacceptable and downright disgusting is that back in June of 2006 Secretary Nicolson ASSURED us that under his 'leadership' this problem was being addressed?

Then in December 2006, a little over a month ago, he publically went ON THE RECORD as stating that "all the problems have been corrected"..?

Why doesn't the Prez fire his sorry ass like he did the fella "Doin a great job" at FEMA?????

[1CAVCCO15MED]

If this country can survive two more years........