Thieves steal personal data of 26.5M vets

Seattle Post Intelligencer ^ | May 22, 2006 | Hope Yen (AP writer)

[Enterprise]

Oooohhh, that chaps my hide!

[Fury]

Geesh. What a stupid employee...

[Ingtar]

I suspect the employee dropped it somewhere. Or dropped it somewhere for payment. Why would you take something like that home?

[MizSterious]

Thanks for posting the story and the contact information. What a debacle.

[phantomworker]

I had personal data on a stolen Company laptop last year, so I know how bad it can be. Had to get 3 years of fraud alert on my credit, which is no fun either.

[nuconvert]

Why would he need to bring it home?
It's certainly coincidental that he brought them home and they were stolen.

[Enterprise]

"Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is a Vietnam veteran, said he would introduce legislation to require the VA to provide credit reports to the veterans affected by the theft."

Well ok, if you insist.

[derSchurfer]

"Thieves took sensitive personal information on 26.5 million U.S. veterans, including Social Security numbers and birth dates, after a Veterans Affairs employee improperly brought the material home, the government said Monday."

This burglary was too convenient. I'm sure a database like that was worth a lot of money. I hope the VA looks into this more thoroughly. I'll be checking.

[phantomworker]

A lot of employees have laptops these days which are used for personal use when at home. They are supposed to have encrypted hard drives. Many do not.

[burzum]

It's not just one employee. It is the entire culture of the VA. The VA is the organization that every service member dreads to face when he or she gets out. It's like going to the DMV, just with a lot more paperwork. It makes me shudder to think about the difficulty I will face someday when I want to get another copy of my DD 214.

[eleni121]

Great. These government drones can't be fired. And just because one works for the veterans doesn't mean that the person is loyal or God forbid respectful to the vets. I know an employee and he regularly sends out email to his "list" regarding his latest kooky conspiracy theory about the Bush family and oil.

[Enterprise]

FWIW- Alberto Gonzales said he wants a "zero tolerance" policy for anyone caught misusing this information. He has the FBI working on it, and you have to KNOW the heat is on because of the number of veterans this impacts.

[mrsmith]

"Hope Yen (AP writer)" got quotes from two Democrat politicians for her story, and only from Democrats.

I see a bright future at AP for Hope.

[Enterprise]

In this case I'm not so sure this person can't be fired. I think I heard that the employee has been placed on administrative leave. A hellfire's worth of heat is coming down on this individual.

[RunningWolf]

Thanks for the heads up. This stinks, it just pisses me off.

Well on another note kudos to John Kerry, he is at least right on one thing.

Wolf

[Noahs Rook]

He can be fired all right, and charged with a felony. Not all us VA Employees are drones, but I feel your angst. I'm one of many who give our best every day to actually CARE for and serve our Veterans.

[Dustbunny]

Nicholson declined to comment on the specifics of the incident, which involved a midlevel data analyst who had taken the information home to suburban Maryland on a laptop to work on a department project.

This man should be fired and lose any and all earned benefits to date.

[WhiteGuy]

yeah................

Will a biometric national ID will be suggested to prevent this from happening in the future...................?

[FreedomCalls]

It makes me shudder to think about the difficulty I will face someday when I want to get another copy of my DD 214.

That's not a problem anymore. You can order a copy of your DD214 online now. It usually will arrive within a week of your request if you fax in your signature.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1622670/posts

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html