VA Breach Discovered Through Office Gossip

[Eugene]

VA Breach Discovered Through Office Gossip


Thursday May 25, 2006 11:01 PM

AP Photo DCCD104

By HOPE YEN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The theft of personal data for 26.5 million veterans came
to the attention of the Veterans Affairs inspector general only through office
gossip, he told Congress Thursday.

In four hours of testimony, IG George Opfer said the department failed to heed years
of warnings about lax security and noted that the employee who lost the data when his
house was burglarized had been improperly taking the material home for three years.

<snip>

At the House hearing, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., called Nicholson's response
unacceptable.

"In the last five years, a host of agencies have reported that the VA has had many
problems with information security," he said. "How did the VA react? With
indifference."

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5845999,00.html

[Suich]

1. Are you kidding me?????

Why in the world was the employee taking the material home for 3 years??? And why would someone steal it????

Must be time for a glass of wine!

:hi:

[elehhhhna]

2. HEy that's how Bush heard about New Orleans drowning! Coincidence?

[WildClarySage]

6. Bush Administration's communicatins strategy isn't working out so well

Maybe that's why the NSA wiretapping- so they can find out what's going on?

[Old and In the Way]

3. I wonder....

does the government have back-up databases? Or will this be an excuse to string out payments to vets while forms are refilled , reviewed, rejected, resubmitted, etc...?

[Mandate My Ass]

4. GMTA

This administration has a recognizable SOP:

1) create a problem through fraud, hype or incompetence (Iraq, Katrina, immigration)

2) create a solution that costs the taxpayers lots $$ and does almost nothing to alleviate the suffering of the victims or the problem.

[leftchick]

5. For The Freeper Vets out there....

How are you liking your chickenhawk CIC now guys?? :grr:

[saigon68]

15. Those Freeper Vets are beyond hope-They want to attack Korea

And get back to killing a few "Zipper heads"

[steely]

7. Hi Guys! I used to have decent credit.

Not no more, thanks to another government agency looking out for me. :sarcasm:

[brooklynite]

8. Veteran Data Was Removed Routinely, Official Says

WASHINGTON, May 25 — Officials of the Veterans Affairs Department told angry lawmakers on Thursday that an agency employee had been taking home sensitive data for three years before some of the material was stolen from his residence, compromising the records of 26.5 million veterans.

"He said that he routinely took such data home to work on it, and had been doing so since 2003," George J. Opfer, the department's inspector general, told senators, some of whom expressed amazement at how the department has handled the theft.

Because the data included Social Security numbers and birth dates as well as names, there has been widespread concern that the information could be used by computer-handy criminals for credit card fraud and other forms of identity theft.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/26/washington/26identity.html
- - -
clearly the fault of "Clintonistas" imbedded in the Department of Veterans Affairs...

[babylonsister]

9. clearly the fault of "Clintonistas" imbedded in the Department of Veterans

And where did that come from? :wtf:

[Janice325]

10. I worked with the Department of the Interior in New Orleans

from 1991 to 1994. I worked with proprietary data in a "secure area," that is, only certain people had access and had to use a key card.
If I had taken any of the data home, my ass would have been fired ASAP.
PS
Mine was "only" a clerical position, but I took it very seriously.
Who the hell allowed him to take that stuff home??? How long did he work for the agency? How did he get the job???
Good gosh almighty!!!
What's wrong with this picture?
It's kinda interesting, isn't it, that in the last couple of years, lots of "sensitive" data has been "lost" from a variety of companies.
k&r

[MadMaddie]

11. Apparantly he and others had been doing it for the last 3-5 years..

I can't imagine any corporation with propriatary information, employee info company info....letting someone take this data home on discs...

If Americans don't see that this administration has imperiled this country in so many ways...internal data security....border security, how many spies do you think are in DC now....the money whore Repugs will sell their soul and their country out...
(There are some bad Dems) but not in the numbers like the Repugs....

[Robbien]

12. Did you see the list of reported lost/stolen identity info?

Privacy rights put together a list of reported lost/stolen identity files in the last year or so. Click on through, it stuns the imagination. It is a very long list of organizations, both public and private.

http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm

And these are just the ones which were reported.

[magellan]

13. Un-frickin-believable

Corporations are getting very rich off of making Americans miserable.

[cap]

14. happens all the time with developping and testing computer systems

a lot of people's data goes home with an employee working at home... computer industry requires a lot of late nights and some people work at home.

[leftchick]

16. omg! That list is just shocking!

and Choicepoint leads the pack! :grr:

[donsu]

17. people knew he took home the disc . maybe this was an inside job

made to look like a simple robbery.

I'm wondering if the bushmilhousegang was looking for something to pin on the retired gens. that spoke out against them.