See post #15 for more information:
The 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.
The VA will send out individual notification letters to veterans to every extent possible. Veterans can also go to www.firstgov.gov as well as www.va.gov/opa to get more information on this matter. The firstgov web site is being set to handle increased web traffic.
Additionally, working with other government agencies, the 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).
Don't don't tell me let me guess. For English press 1.... This is the best argument against government data bases I can find. Although the VA does have a legitimate use for this information many more being proposed simply do not. This info should NEVER have been downloadable to any other computer and should have stayed in the main system. The government especially under Gonzales reminds me of a movie {I can't remember the name} where a robot called Johnny 5 goes around everywhere collecting data. All it says is must have input. This administrations unquenchable thirst for private data surpasses even that of the Clinton.
That being said I hope the VA locks down what is transferable from it's files. There was no reason for this information not to be protected. 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? Fire them!