John Kerry Fights to Protect Veterans from Identity Theft

[sabra]

http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=256025

John Kerry Fights to Protect Veterans from Identity Theft

Kerry bill will provide free credit monitoring for veterans affected by stolen data

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has introduced the Veterans Identity Protection Act of 2006, legislation that will provide free credit monitoring for all United States military veterans who have been affected by the recent theft of personal data.

...

“Clearly the security at the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be tightened up in a big way,” Kerry added. “This breach should not have happened in the first place, and someone needs to be fired for it. Veterans Affairs is supposed to be there to protect and help our veterans, not compromise their privacy.”


Kerry’s bill will offer free credit monitoring for one year for every American affected by the theft. Credit monitoring on average costs between $50.00 to $150.00 per person each year. Kerry’s bill will also provide a second free credit report to each veteran for the second and third years of the act, in addition to the free credit report available under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.


“I’m deeply concerned that this theft happened May 3 and 26 million veterans are only finding out about it now. This stolen data is personal and private and there are grave implications if this information has gotten into the wrong hands,” said Kerry. “We need to protect these veterans and their spouses immediately, and offering this free credit monitoring will help make sure they don’t become the victims of identify theft. It’s the very least we can do.”

[Ragin_mad]

1. 26 million at an average of 100 bucks each

Is 2.6 billion dollars. Where will this money come from ?

[Kagemusha]

4. ...Maybe there's economies of scale involved?

That's a big sum though, you're right. ...Just drives home that this is not a small deal, ugh.

[Debau2005]

5. I will concentrate

on the money issue later, right now I want to get a long hearty laugh about this!

My ex is a vet who's separation falls in the time frame that was stolen! And now the man he HATES, yes he is a repig, is leading the charge to help him with his credit?! The poetic justice for me is HUGE!

I know bad Deb for having bad thoughts about the ex, I'll only giggle for a few days, I promise! :evilgrin:




Edited because spelling still eludes me!

[yorgatron]

6. welcome to DU ragin mad,as for where we get the money

i suppose we could track down some of the $9,000,000,000.00 that went missing in Iraq.

[Ragin_mad]

8. missing hell

That money is safely tucked away in asshole's bank account. Perhaps it's time to raid a few offshore accounts.

[StrafingMoose]

14. Or perhaps the untrackable 2.3 trillions...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

Fewww... Saved by the 9/11 bell!

[onehandle]

16. Who the fuck cares? Democrats support our veterans.

Unlike Republicans and their pencil dick freeper base.

[Kagemusha]

2. That was fast. I only heard hours ago vets asked the VA head for this

The VA head who's outraged that he only got told the 16th of this month about the theft some two weeks prior. And hey, if that happened to me I'd be a little ticked myself. But I don't run it, and he does.

Anyway, good for Kerry.

[High Plains]

3. Is a Kerry press release considered late breaking news?

[karynnj]

7. That he's responding with legislation today for a problem identified

yesterday sounds like late breaking news.

[truthisfreedom]

9. Kerry's brilliant for jumping on this immediately. he shows us what bushco

is made of when it comes to our troops and our veterans.

[karynnj]

11. According to many of the MA Kerry supporters,

he's done this type of thing for 22 years in office and as an advocate ever since he returned from Vietnam. I agree it's a good move, but both the privacy issues and veterans are things he always has been very good on.

[eugene5debs]

10. Kerry voted FOR ID theft, before voting against it.

Kerry voted for requiring states to collect social security numbers and matching them to drivers licenses, which jump started the boom in ID theft. So now he wants to mend his ways? Guffaw!

[karynnj]

13. You mean the bill that required that driver's licenses

require more proof of identification as they are the commonly used ID? I have not heard of any state's Drivers license files being stolen. The states, like the VA and all other government agencies have to secure their information.

Could you please list all the Senators who voted against this?

[Ragin_mad]

12. Add a credit fraud watch to your credit report for free

www.experian.com

Click on the link for veterans information. They will tag your file for 90 days to alert potential credit grantors that there may be fraud involved and to get proof if identity. This service is free, and experian will also notify the other credit agencies to do the same.

[Veronica.Franco]

15. Kerry/Murtha 2008