http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1644787/posts
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-exec/2006/jun/07/060704512.html
Data on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Nearly all active-duty military, Guard and Reserve members - about 2.2 million total - may be at risk for identity theft because their personal information was among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month.
In a new disclosure Tuesday, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency was mistaken when it said over the weekend that up to 50,000 Navy and National Guard personnel were among the 26.5 million veterans whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen on May 3.
The number is actually much higher because the VA realized it had records on file for most active-duty personnel because they are eligible to receive VA benefits such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home loan guarantee program.
In a statement, Nicholson said the VA's latest review found the data included as many as 1.1 million active-duty personnel from all the armed forces, along with 430,000 members of the National Guard, and 645,000 members of the Reserves.
He noted that the agency has been notifying all affected veterans and that there have been no reports of identity theft in what has become one of the nation's largest security breaches.
"VA remains committed to providing updates on this incident as new information is learned," Nicholson said, explaining that it discovered the larger numbers after the VA and Pentagon compared their electronic files more closely.
Veterans groups expressed outrage over the announcement, the latest in a series of revelations by the government as to who was affected since publicizing the burglary on May 22. At the time, the VA said the stolen data involved veterans discharged since 1975, as well as some of their spouses.
"Our Armed Forces personnel have enough on their plates with fighting the global war on terror let alone having to worry about theft identity while deployed overseas," said Ramona Joyce, spokeswoman for the American Legion.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the VA must come clean after three weeks of "this debacle."
"This confirms the VFW's worst fear from day one - that the loss of data encompasses every single person who did wear the uniform and does wear the uniform today," Davis said.
A lawsuit filed by five veterans groups on Tuesday demanded that the VA fully disclose which military personnel are affected by the data theft and seeks $1,000 in damages for each person. The veterans are also seeking a court order barring VA employees from using sensitive data until independent experts determine proper safeguards.
"VA arrogantly compounded its disregard for veterans' privacy rights by recklessly failing to make even the most rudimentary effort to safeguard this trove of the personally identifiable information from unauthorized disclosure," the complaint says.
In response to the lawsuit, the VA said it is in discussions with credit-monitoring services to determine "how veterans and others potentially affected can best be served" in the aftermath of the theft, said spokesman Matt Burns.
Maryland authorities, meanwhile, announced they were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the return of the laptop or media drive taken during the May 3 burglary at a VA data analyst's home in Aspen Hill, Md.
They asked that anyone who purchased a used Hewlett Packard Laptop model
zv5360us or HP external personal media drive after May 3 to call Montgomery County Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Anyone with the stolen equipment can turn it in anonymously and become eligible for the $50,000 reward, police said.
Veterans groups have criticized the VA for a three-week delay in publicizing the burglary. The VA initially disclosed the burglary May 22, saying it involved the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers - and in some cases, disability codes - of veterans discharged since 1975.
Since then, it has also acknowledged that phone numbers and addresses of many of those veterans also may have been included.
RELATED:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1644110/posts?page=38#38
Military funds research on how nicotine impairs bone healing
WHY this is related:
Study is being run by:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563271/posts
Healthy People 2010
Study is funded by NGOs:
NGOs-Non-governmental organization - A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an organization that is not part of a government and was not founded by states. NGOs are therefore typically independent of governments. Although the definition can technically include for-profit corporations, the term is generally restricted to social, cultural, legal, and environmental advocacy groups having goals that are primarily noncommercial. NGOs are usually non-profit organizations that gain at least a portion of their funding from private sources. Current usage of the term is generally associated with the United Nations and authentic NGOs are those that are so designated by the UN.
When an NGO funds a study:
EXCERPT:
NGOs seek "access" to information and to those that make the decisions. This can mean many things. NGO representatives want physical access to the conference halls where official meetings take place, so that they can observe, interact with delegates and monitor proceedings. NGO representatives want to circulate their own documents, to speak to meetings, to have access to documents and to gain entry to informal, preparatory meetings and the like. NGOs also want access to administrative offices in the Secretariat and other agencies, and the right to be consulted in the administration's policy-formulation and policy-implementation process. In some (rare) cases, NGOs aspire to official voting status in the decision-making process itself, as is the case in the International Labour Organisation.
Excerpt:
7 CFR part 1.1--implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.
What the schools, states, associations, and hospitals are doing, when they take the grant money, they are turning over the data, your data.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060601332.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email
Data Theft Affected Most in Military
National Security Concerns Raised
By Ann Scott Tyson and Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 7, 2006; Page A01
Excerpts:
- 2.2 million U.S. military personnel -- including nearly 80 percent of the active-duty force -- were among the data stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst
- security experts said, the information could be used to find out where military personnel live. "This essentially can create a Zip code for where each of the service members and [their] families live, and if it fell into the wrong hands could potentially put them at jeopardy of being targeted," said David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
- information could reach foreign governments and their intelligence services or other hostile forces, allowing them to target service members and their families, the experts said.
- Montgomery County police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that allows authorities to recover the laptop. The computer is a Hewlett-Packard model zv5360us and the external hard drive is an HP External Personal Media Drive.
- The Washington Post is not publishing the name of the career data analyst whose laptop was stolen in response to a request from law enforcement authorities who are investigating its disappearance. (oh the irony)
- VA receives records for every new recruit because active-duty personnel, National Guard members and reservists are eligible for certain VA benefits, such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home-loan program.