VA Barred From Publicizing Offer to Vets

[AnOhioan]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge temporarily has barred the government from publicizing its free credit monitoring offer to veterans whose personal data was stolen and wants to see if they might get a better federal offer.

Lawyers who have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 26.5 million veterans and active-duty troops affected contend that accepting the government's offer could jeopardize their chance of winning more money in the privacy suit.

Last week, the department announced its plan to offer free monitoring for a year to millions of veterans and nearly all active-duty military troops whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen May 3 from a VA data analyst's home in suburban Maryland.

But in court papers, lawyers for veterans said the VA's deal was ``incomplete and misleading.'' The VA must make clear whether veterans who take the government deal will have to give up their rights in court to a potentially larger payout...

More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5910229,00.html

[evlbstrd]

1. Is that your headline or was it published?

It's misleading. The judge is looking out for Vets' interests. As one of those whose info is "missing," I look forward to a class action suit and potential settlement.

[AnOhioan]

2. If you had checked the link....

you would have seen it was the published headline

[evlbstrd]

4. Yeah, I'm lazy,

Sue me.

[BrotherBuzz]

3. It's correct and not misleading

The judge is looking out for Vets' interests.

The VA must make clear whether veterans who take the government deal will have to give up their rights in court to a potentially larger payout

[evlbstrd]

5. It read as negative.

Maybe it's just my state of mind.

[BrotherBuzz]

6. It's all good

I'm holding one of those damn letters, too, and have not yet responded (like my credit can get worse?:rofl:).

I'm waiting to see what develops with the class action suit before I do anything.

[evlbstrd]

9. Same here.

I hope we have good lawyers.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. No biggie. I did at first too.

Then I read the article and learned that this was a good thing.

[evlbstrd]

10. The synopsis cleared it up for me.

[nascar55]

8. Do we have

to do anything to be a part of the Class-action suits? I got my letter also......:shrug:

[gratuitous]

26. Read your letter carefully

Have a dictionary handy, if necessary. These class action notices are written in impenetrable legalese born of the efforts of hundreds of lawyers over several decades. Most of the language is based on the relevant class action statutes and it's required to be stated the way it's stated.

Generally, however, if you receive notice of a class action lawsuit, you've been identified as a member of the class. The notice gives you an outline of the issues involved, facts that aren't in dispute, and a preliminary timeline for setting up the case. The first major deadline is for individuals to opt out of the class and pursue legal action on their own.

The main reason cases are brought as class actions is because no individual person has a big enough claim by himself to warrant going to court. If your personal case does have big monetary damages, then you'd probably considering opting out of the class. If you don't think the government did anything wrong, and you don't think they should have to pay anything for this, you'd probably consider opting out. Otherwise, you'd probably want to stay in, and you don't have to do anything for that to happen once you've received the notice.

[nascar55]

27. Thank you

:toast:

[Stand and Fight]

11. I've got the same question as nascar55....

Do we have to do anything to be part of this class action lawsuit? I've not responded to the letter yet, and I want to see these jerks pay up. Especially after they just denied me a compensation increase! :mad:

[pecwae]

12. Yet another question

I haven't received a letter, but am not going to assume that means I'm in the clear. Does anyone know how to find out whether you're affected without waiting around for them to let you know?

[BrotherBuzz]

13. 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636)...

appears to be the VA hotline call center number for all questions. The call center operates 8am to 9pm (EDT), Monday-Saturday. Give 'em a call and see if they can help. :shrug:

[Rex]

14. I don't need no stinking blood money!

I want a FULL INVESTIGATION, by an impartial body, into WHY someone took home those records and HOW just outta the blue 'young teens' would rob the house on the ONLY day the data was brought home out of the week! This is bullshit and I'm tired of being lied to.

[Xithras]

24. Well, here's how it happens.

I do reporting work for the college I'm employed at (in addition to teaching). What is reporting work? It's primarily developing computer programs to parse through student data to develop reports for all sorts of things. Just last week I was asked to develop a report that showed grade and attendance averages for students by race...the school wanted to determine whether certain racial groups had a higher dropout rate, and whether there were common points where they were having problems.

The thing is, we DON'T do these kinds of reports on the live data in our main database. That would be too dangerous (one mistyped line could wipe out decades of student records), so we take a snapshot of the data and work with it on our own PC's. Where I work, those PC's are laptops. Right now, on this same computer I'm typing with, I have the complete personal and educational histories of about 100,000 students from the current semester back to 1999, because those are the records I need for the work I'm doing at this moment. Names, birthdates, social security numbers, personal desriptions, grade and attendance histories, degrees and majors, transfer data, personal data on parents (inluding, in many cases, THEIR SSN's and birthdates), and even info on their children. All of that data is sitting in a plain old delimited text file that is only about 40 megabytes in size.

And yes, the laptop does go home with me quite often. I sometimes work in a staff office, more often I work in my adjunct faculty office, and quite often I take advantage of my employers telecommuting options and work from home. The laptop has a bios password and the data is lightly encrypted (24 bit), but the result would be the same if my home (or car, when it's in there) were ever broken into. We do have a program called Armageddon that would kick in if it were ever stolen, but even it isn't foolproof.

THAT is how mistakes like this happen. It's not some grand conspiracy, it's the result of a technical culture that often puts the mobility and convenience of workers ahead of the practical security of the people in those files.

[Monkeyman]

15. Got my letter

Remember the old saying don't mean a thing.I locked down my credit. But look out brother the Navy personals files that were posted was the first ones told to us.Ours is still out there.VVA is all ready got names on their lawsuits mine on there.Hell they know this could happen GAO reports have been telling them over an over this could happen.

[Moderator]

16. K

[Breeze54]

17. US can't publicize VA credit watch offer

Edited for spelling error

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/06/26/us_cant_publicize_va_credit_watch_offer/

US can't publicize VA credit watch offer

By Hope Yen, Associated Press | June 26, 2006

WASHINGTON --

A federal judge temporarily barred the government from publicizing its free credit monitoring
offer to veterans whose personal data was stolen and wants to see if they might get a better
federal offer.

Lawyers who have filed a classaction lawsuit on behalf of the 26.5 million veterans and active
duty troops affected contend that accepting the government's offer could jeopardize their chance
of winning more money in the privacy suit.

US District Judge William Bertelsman in Kentucky scheduled a hearing for Friday to determine
whether the Veterans Affairs Department should revise its offer.

His order on the credit monitoring was issued late last week.

The suit seeks free monitoring and other credit protection for an indefinite period as well as
$1,000 in damages for each person, or up to $26.5 billion total, in what has become one of the
nation's largest information security breaches.

Last week, the department announced its plan to offer free monitoring for a year to millions
of veterans and nearly all active-duty military troops whose names, birthdates,
and Social Security numbers were stolen May 3 from a VA data analyst's home in suburban Maryland.

But in court papers, lawyers for veterans said the VA's deal was "incomplete and misleading."
The VA must make clear whether veterans who take the government deal will have to give up their
rights in court to a potentially larger payout, lawyer Marc Mezibov wrote.

More at Link....

==================

I read last week that The Dept. of Agriculture IS doing free credit monitoring
for their employee's who had info stolen though!

[TechBear_Seattle]

18. On the one hand...

I am pissed at the delays. On the other hand, I can certainly see how accepting an offer to mitigate potential harm now would negatively affect a class-action lawsuit.

I'm just very glad that I get to sit on the sidelines on this one. :shrug:

[Breeze54]

19. I hope they get

the potential for a larger payout myself! I think the veterans and active military SHOULD
have any and all damages covered! This was gross negligence on behalf of the government
and is mind boggling to me that it even happened! Unbelievable!
:grr:

[melm00se]

20. please don't overlook

the fact that if the government gets stung for costs and fees, it will be coming out of our (the taxpayers) pockets.

[Ragin_mad]

21. By the time any class action suit is over

The lawyers will make millions in fees, while the veterans will get a 10 % discount on credit monitoring for a month.

[Breeze54]

22. I hear you and the above poster. I know...

I know it will come out of taxpayers pockets and of course
the veterans and active military will get the shaft!
Don't they always? :shrug:

I know all that...it's a 'given', I think. I'm still pissed about it though!

[TacticalPeek]

23. K&R

:kick:

[Corgigal]

25. I just called the VA info number

I never got a letter from the VA and wanted to know why. Lady on the phone claims if you didn't receive a letter then your name wasn't on that data disk. Which puzzles me because I served 8 years in that time period and have used the local VA a few years ago. Why wouldn't my data be on that list?

Still I have a credit freeze and monitor service going. I don't feel comfortable with a person on the phone just saying that. She couldn't even look up my name to be sure.