Posted on 06/07/2006 3:54:26 AM PDT by xzins
Data on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA By HOPE YEN 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.
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On the Net:
Information for veterans suspecting identity theft:
http://www.firstgov.gov or 1-800-FED-INFO
This is now a national security issue; especially is current addresses for these troops is included...which it probably is.
It would give current order of battle for every single military member on active duty.
Be of good cheer. However bad the Government says this situation is, it's probably worse.
I've been using this thread as a bump list for related info:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1636391/posts
Key Data on Millions of Veterans Stolen!
I still think there's less here than meets the eye; until and unless this information starts showing up, the reasonable assumption is that an ambitious-if-foolish employee took work home that he shouldn't have, and his computer got stolen by a common thief. The data probably no longer exists.
FYI, that story is linked in the post I added at 6.
fyi
>>>>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.
That story is at the link in my post 6 also.
Very odd too. The VVA has all but lost their charter standing. They need to be declaired a political group. And most of the groups in this lawsuit aren't even National.
The VA needs to PROVE that this has not been used for criminal purposes. otherwise they are liable for any fraud on ANY of the millions of people effected after the theft.
why is FR more secure thatn a government database?
The identity of 26.5 million veterans stolen.
That's everybody, all vets, right? Last I heard there were 26 million vets total. Or is my count off?
I think your number has to be real close.
All MIL since since 1975 is the info that has been quoted in articles.
This information was sold.
"The VVA has all but lost their charter standing. They need to be declaired a political group."
I call them the Wee Wee Aay. The fact that "Veterans for Peace" is one of the "groups" in this so-called coalition of orgs that the wee wee aay has filed suit vs the VA says all one needs to know, IMO.
Notice that the VFW and Legion haven't "joined" their coalition.....
from the Wee Wee Aay website:
"VVA is joined by four other national organizations and individual veterans in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court today by attorney Douglas Rosinski of the law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. They are the National Gulf War Resource Center, Radiated Veterans of America, Citizen Soldier, and Veterans for Peace."
http://www.vva.org/PressReleases/2006/pr06-010.htm
bump
Really is suspicious.
Data theft has become rampant. The laws are still too lenient for those that commit this kind of crime. The data is sold for marketing purposes. Say your a database administrator making $60,000 a year. You steal the data and sell the list to marketers who will pay ten cents a record. So in the case of all the existing military personele plus veterans of 2.2 million records, you sell it for $220,000k with a couple of phone calls. Data theft are almost always inside jobs like this. These greedy database administrators need to go to prison as a federal crime just like embezzlement charges for 10-20 years. Then this will stop. Until then, you'll see more and more of this, it is just too tempting for a database administrator to sell out and lets face it, most executive management knows little on how to secure and protect this inside theft from occuring.
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