VA notifies veterans affected by data loss

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VA notifies veterans affected by data loss
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 15, 2007 20:27:28 EST

The Department of Veterans Affairs is individually notifying about 12,000 veterans treated at the VA hospital in Indianapolis that they may be at risk for identity theft because of records inadvertently stored on a computer stolen Saturday.

The VA will offer credit protection and financial protection to everyone whose names, Social Security numbers and birthdates were stored on the stolen computer, said VA spokeswoman Jo Schuda.

Three computers, printers and other computer equipment were taken from the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis in a theft discovered Monday that is believed to have occurred on Saturday, Schuda said. The VA inspector general and federal, state and local law enforcement are investigating, she said.

One of the stolen computers contained personal information on about 12,000 patients that was being used for billing purposes, Schuda said. Both inpatients and outpatients are affected.

Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the former chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the architect of VA computer security policies put into federal law, said sensitive information on veterans is supposed to be kept on servers, not on personal computers, to reduce the chances of a security breach.

Schuda said she was not fully aware of the security policy, but the civilian employee who had the data on her computer’s hard drive appeared to be unaware that it was even there until meeting with VA security employees to talk about what records might be missing.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_datatheft_varesponds_071115w/