Attention On Decks, Marines, Va Records Stolen

[booksbenji]

Sec Nicholson has just announced the theft of a VA computer with 26 million vets names, SS# and dates of birth----no financial or health info. An employee, unauthorized, took a laptop home and his home was burglarized.

No evidence yet that the information is compromised. They are going public---obviously, now.

They've set up an 800 number 1 800 333 4636, website www.firstgov.gov and sending individual letters to vets, as possible. Sec says vets need to be alert and do those things that help protect them which will be announced by them to all VSOs shortly.

Active IG investigation going on. Sec wants VSOs to help give out the news.

WEBSITE NO HELP #is good

FOX NEWS: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196492,00.html

[booksbenji]

WITH STUPIDVISOR, the cd a/o laptop not compable with any known outside gov't putor system. WWWHHEEWWW that a relief. WRONG will be able to tell until the aftermath.

[thedrifter]

May 22, 2006
Personal info of 26 million vets stolen from VA employee’s home

By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer

A common house burglar has in his hands the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 26 million veterans and a Department of Veterans Affairs employee is on administrative leave after an incident of misjudgment and bad luck.

A career VA employee took data containing the 26.5 million names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and possibly other information to his home from work recently and then had the misfortune of having his home burglarized and the information taken.


VA officials declined to provide much detail about the incident, except to say that they are notifying veterans, scrambling to open call centers and Web sites and investigating the matter. Although the data is out there, there is no reason at present to think the burglar knows what he has, said VA Secretary James Nicholson in a conference call May 22.

“There is no indication that any use is being made of this data or even that they know that they have it,” said Nicholson.

The stolen data did not contain any medical or financial records, Nicholson said.

He declined to name the employee or say where the theft occurred, except to say the employee had been placed on administrative leave and that the burglary had occurred within the last month. The VA is headquartered in the Washington, D.C., region.

The employee was not authorized to remove the information from VA offices, but Nicholson said there was no reason to think the worker was attempting to do anything but use the data as part of his job.

“We do have people here who telecommute,” he said. “But we have policies and procedures and this person violated those.”

The list of 26.5 million veterans includes all those who left the service since 1975, up to and including those veterans who filed DD-214 release forms with the department up until recently. The list may include some deceased veterans, Nicholson said.

The VA is alerting its members to the problem by sending individual letters to them and through normal publicity channels. The department is also opening a call center at (800) 333-4636 that can field up to 250,000 calls a day, Nicholson said. Additional information can be obtained on the Internet.

Veterans who have no reason to suspect they are victims of identity theft probably have no reason to call the call center, Nicholson said. The VA has no plans as yet to subsidize credit reports for veterans who believe their information may have fallen in the wrong hands.

Ellie

[sgt tony]

tell me that they just have not given the illigel Immigrants my SSN.
Well if he was going to work on it at home then the program is in his laptop

[fontman]

The VA Data Theft Debacle

Below received from my Marine brother Wayne, this morning. Passing on to all for information.

ALCON:

MizMarlene and I have talked about this current issue quite a bit.

She believes, as do many of us, there is much more to this issue than is currently being let out to the public.much deeper consequences.who might possibly get hold of the info.for what devious purposes.etc.

As I was putting out the Morning Mail Call a few moments ago, she stuck her head into the WAYMOR Inc Corporate Suite (one of our bedrooms where our "office" operates from).came up with a GRRRRRR8 idea.

FULLY IDENTIFY the individual who "lost" the records! Put photo, full name, address, phone number, Social Security Number, DOB, and any other info on that person (that was available to others in OUR RECORDS) out to the public.so that WE VETERANS and others will not only know who this person is, but that WE VETERANS and that person are now on an even playing field!

So, if someone would kindly research the issue a little further.come up with a good Email and/or snail mail address (or addresses) that will get to the right folks, figure the best way to run an EMail petition (not the cumbersome manner in which so many do), let us know and we'll get it going!

As I've often said over the years, never tick off the Female of the Breed!!!!

Semper Fi,

Wayne V. Morris
Col USMC (Ret)
WAYMOR Inc.
PO Box 232
Jacksonville, NC 28541-0232
Email: waymor@bizec.rr.com

[booksbenji]

[SemperFin]

"Veterans who have no reason to suspect they are victims of identity theft probably have no reason to call the call center, Nicholson said. The VA has no plans as yet to subsidize credit reports for veterans who believe their information may have fallen in the wrong hands."

You would assume that they would at least work with the 3 major credit centers to set up a "special" credit watch for an extended period of time for those who asked for it. It's the least they could do for making such a greivous error and then waiting for 19 days before making it public. I'm with sgt tony in hoping that some illegal isn't running around with my SSN screwing up my life.

[thedrifter]

Sent to me from hubby...thefontman....

Ellie

Veterans Chief Voices Anger on Data Theft
By DAVID STOUT
The New York Times

WASHINGTON, May 24 - Jim Nicholson, the secretary of veterans affairs,
expressed outrage Wednesday over being kept in the dark about the theft
of computer data on 26.5
million veterans as he himself came under heavy criticism from Capitol
Hill.

Mr. Nicholson issued a statement vowing "a very extensive review of
individuals up and down the chain of command" and urging the inspector
general's office at the Department
of Veterans Affairs to expedite an investigation of the affair.

An administration official who has followed the episode said Mr.
Nicholson was not told about the missing data until the night of May 16, or
13 days after the disks containing the
data were stolen in a burglary at the home of a department employee.

The disks held the names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and
other data on legions of veterans discharged from the mid-1970's onward,
and their loss has set off
widespread concerns that the information could be used in credit card
frauds and other crimes linked to identity theft.

Mr. Nicholson said he was "outraged at the loss of this veterans' data
and the fact an employee would put it at risk by taking it home in
violation of our policies." He added, "I am
also concerned about the timing of the department's response once the
burglary became known."

"Upon notification, my first priority was to take all actions necessary
to protect veterans from harm and to assist in law enforcement
efforts," Mr. Nicholson said. The official who
said that Mr. Nicholson had not been informed for 13 days said the
secretary had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation once he learned of
the theft, then ordered his own
agency to set up Web sites and a toll-free number to handle an
anticipated flood of queries.

Once the breach was announced on Monday, calls began to pour in. An
agency spokesman, Matt Burns, said the department received 25,491 calls on
Monday and 58,818 on
Tuesday. The call center can handle up to 260,000 telephone queries a
day, he said.

It was not clear on Wednesday who had finally notified Mr. Nicholson of
the data breach and how many people in the department knew about it
before the secretary was told.

Mr. Burns said he could provide no new information on the employee who
had taken the computer disks home. He has been placed on administrative
leave. A spokesman for the
Montgomery County police in Maryland, Lt. Eric Burnett, said his
department was not releasing information on the burglary and the ensuing
investigation.

The veterans agency has emphasized that there is no sign that any of
the data has been used in criminal acts. But lawmakers were not mollified
by those assurances, or by Mr.
Nicholson's pledge to get to the roots of the affair.

"This is a serious breach that raises troubling questions about the
management of the Department of Veterans Affairs," said Senator Patrick J.
Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. In
view of the delay in disclosing the loss, President Bush should think
about finding a new veterans secretary, Mr. Leahy said.

The senator, known as one of the more computer-handy members of
Congress, said Mr. Nicholson "needs to answer why this information was left
vulnerable to such a breach."

Mr. Nicholson will face questioning on Thursday, before a joint hearing
of the Senate's Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security committees.

"We're scrambling right now to get all the information we can," said
Senator Larry Craig, the Idaho Republican who heads the veterans panel.
Mr. Craig said he was angry about
even a possibility that the missing data was "out in the marketplace
today, in the criminal element."

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Representative John T. Salazar
of Colorado, both Democrats, have introduced a bill that would provide
free credit monitoring for
veterans affected by the lapse. "This breach should not have happened
in the first place, and someone needs to be fired for it," Mr. Kerry
said.

Christopher Wolf, a Washington lawyer with the firm Proskauer Rose who
specializes in security issues, said that the veterans department was
just one of many federal agencies
with lax computer security, and that sabotage might not be the biggest
danger. "These things happen because of accidents," he said.

The veterans department began issuing new identification cards late in
2004, with a veteran's Social Security number and date of birth
encrypted on a magnetic tape on the back.
"Identity theft is one of the fast-growing crimes in the nation," read
an accompanying announcement.

Semper Fidelis,
Mark

[al20852]

It isan't enough to just say you are sorry. They should pay Particularly since with proper security, stealing a computer or its hard drive is merely stealing a pile of metal and plastic. I have a government computer, and I have to either enter a complex password or use a fingerprint reader. Otherwise you cant access the hard drive.

Apparently the VA never heard of this or of encrypting data.

[ggyoung]

Bank routing numbers and bank account numbers are on your SSNs on file. Any thing else to worry about?

[jryanjack]

An organization that my wife belongs to had something similiar happen, with a couple exceptions - they only had names and addresses, no SSN's or DOB's. That organization - to which she pays an annual dues to - is voluntarily providing a year of free credit monitoring. No one had to tell them or ask them to do this, they announced it at the same time they announced the data loss.

Guess we didn't pay enough for that kind of consideration and protection.

[FistFu68]

WHY IN THE HELL,OR HOW IN THE HELL,WOULD AN EMPLOYEE OF (VA.) BE ABLE 2 SNEAK OUT,OR STEAL ALL THAT INFO.?WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVATION BEHIND THIS,BREECH OF SECURITY~AND THEN A CONVENIENT,BURGLARY? SMOKING~MIRROR'S???

[booksbenji]

An employee, unauthorized, took a laptop home and his home was burglarized. first paragraph last sentence

[CAS3]

Please remember, the VA does have protocols and procedures in place however, this one individual made the error in judgement. He committed a federal crime and I am sure he will be prosecuted.
When you become a VA employee, you sign a "contract" in regards to privacy issues.
All the VA software I am aware of, has password protection. I don't think your everyday home burglar is "intelligent" enough to figure out what he has or how to use it.

[ggyoung]

CAS3 Foe some reason I don't think that this was a "everyday home burglar"