Key Data on Millions of Veterans Stolen!

ABC News ^ | 5/22/06

[areafiftyone]

May 22, 2006 — 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.

[DBrow]

doubt they even know they have it, unless that's what they were there for.

Well, if they watch the news they probably have a hint as to what they got.

Wonder why the govt and media is making such a big deal out of it? If it were me running the show I'd keep it quiet and do a massive effort to find the robbers before they can replicate and sell the data.

Unless the whole thing is a setup- someone inside knew that the unnamed database analyst took his laptop home, and called in pros to lift it, then calls the media to assure that the wrong people get punished (reminds me of the nuclear code validation files that disappeared from Los Alamos).

[AdamSelene235]

Your average person robbing a house wouldn't want this data would they?

No, but now its on the national newswires he must realize he is sitting on a gold mine. In addition to ID thieves, there are plenty of foreign governments that will pay top dollar for this info.

[Army MP Retired]

I hope you see this response, Army MP.

Hello Jolanta. I meant no offense to you of course. I know my comment was broad and stereotypical. I also know there must certainly be dedicated and conscientious general schedule employees. Unfortunately, my opinion - based on 22+ years of direct interaction with DA civilians, at least - is that the average GS employee has been promoted way beyond their potential. There is a tremendous level of institutionalized incompetence within the GS system, exasperated by the bureaucratic near impossibility to fire a federal employee. In my opinion this problem goes all the way back to FDR and the 'New Deal' when we came closer to becoming a socialist society than we ever will again. After 9/11 our president tried to remedy this - but of course he met staunch resistance from the demofacsists. My general impression of GS employee is that they wish to get as much pay and benefit as they can for as little effort as possible - hence my snide comment about this guy taking work home with him. Not only is it not allowed... I just think the laws of probability lean toward he wasn't a conscientious employee taking work home to catch up on. Since you are part of the FReeper community - I must certainly conclude you are an exception to my stereotypical opinion, as you are engaged in endeavoring to make a difference ... a character trait I have not observed in the average GS employee I have interacted with. Thanks for your service, and my humblest apology if I offended you.

[George W. Bush]

Why isn't this info kept on a locked network with secure servers and a safeguard against copying or removing it? Where are the security protocols and the NSA expertise?

Just another dividend from our citizens allowing the feds to turn our SS numbers into an unofficial identity card. And the original legislation forbade SS numbers from ever being used in this way.

Like the illegals thing, it's just another law that no one in either party ever wants to enforce.

[George W. Bush]

I pity the fool who tries to steal my I.D. , he might start getting calls from creditors!

Hee-hee! Good to see you here, Race.

[FourtySeven]

My biggest worry is that whoever stole the files will discover exactly what it is that he has and find another person willing to pay alot of money for all that information.

I'm sure that's the case.

Has anyone here watched the show on the Discovery channel called, "It Takes a Thief"? One of the things I've learned watching that show is that a thief isn't very discriminate about what he steals, while burglarizing a home. If something looks remotely valuable, or potentially valuable, the thief would take it, to sort out later.

In this instance, it's entirely possible, as you suggest, that the thief knew others who are in the "information business", and thus thought whatever's on the disk might be valuable. It's also possible that the thief may have thought the disks contained simple backups of the employee's personal data, and thus could possibly contain his CC#'s, checking account #'s, etc.

In other words this isn't some grand conspiracy. It's probably a couple of crack addicts looking for a quick score. And maybe an identity theft ring might come down in the process of investigation too.

As far as the employee goes, he should be fired IMO. The VA system takes these kind of things very seriously. As far as bringing him up on charges of compromising classified material, I wouldn't say that. After all, everyone's SS# and other personal information isn't classified to begin with. It should be kept private, by the person themselves and anyone s/he chooses to give the information to, but privacy rules and laws aren't the same as classified information.

[melancton]

I can try to copy and paste a picture in a web site and get right click disabled but the VA can't protect critical files and instead puts this data in laptops?

I'm surprised more people haven't picked up on the fact that this critical data was put on a laptop in the first place. The only possible reason for that is so this data can be portable. So, why would this data need to be portable? No explanation has been offered and no one is asking. And this is the same government so many people are willing to trust prying into every other aspect of our lives.

By the way, to get around the right-click disabler, simply left-click, then right-click, then release the left mouse button.    

[Larousse2]

Sorry that happened to you.

People warn us now to only put out bills and checks in the mail at the post office, and to not ever put them in our mailboxes at home.

[Larousse2]

I had the very same idea, and guess who's visiting?

[FourtySeven]

As far as I understand, from the local news reports around here (I first heard this story on the local news, driving in today, so I imagine the incident occured somewhere around the Baltimore metro area), the information was on disks, not a laptop.

Now I'm not saying that's definitely the case, but I haven't seen any report to indicate it was definitely a laptop that was stolen. From what I can gather, it's a disk or disks that were stolen, thus the employee most likely took these disks home to do some work there, instead of commuting in to work. This is in direct violation of VA policy by the way.

[Centurion2000]

Someone needs to file a lawsuit under FOIA and get the name of the guy that took his work home.

That guy is probably already out of the country or making plans to get out.

[Centurion2000]

Now someone has a list of all the people in the USA trained in the use of firearms.

That's a good point, but there are a LOT more people trained in the use of firearms than just military folks. The best shot I've ever known never joined.

[Larousse2]

Excellent point! Trained, and more than likely still have their issues.

[NonValueAdded]

Yeah, the news reports gleefully reporting that the perps don't know the value of what they have .... ooops, our bad.

[NonValueAdded]

Let's hope the IG goes beyond the dumbarse worker who took the data home ... they better also look at the standard data security scheme that allows an employee to pull that much data in the first place. Precious few should have all-rows access.

[LuxMaker]

That guy is probably already out of the country or making plans to get out.

Hopefully though, we can get an idea of the political motivations behind this and expose it for what it is.

[Steve Van Doorn]

If al-Qaeda got this they could target these vets at home.

[eleni121]

Why hasn't this jerk's name been revealed? One of the most suspicious robberies I've heard of recently.

[KoRn]

" Well, if they watch the news they probably have a hint as to what they got."

I heard they DID keep it quiet for a couple of weeks. They must have given up after they couldn't find out anything, and went public to warn people.

[cva66snipe]

And this is the same government so many people are willing to trust prying into every other aspect of our lives.

Count me not among such. My tag line spells that out. Some private things there is a real need for the government to know but most is simply none of governments business. The fact that the V.A. can't secure these files tells me the other agencies are no less incompetent in this matter. BTW thanks for the right click trick.