Stolen VA Data May Have Been Erased

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5873716,00.html

That's pathetic.

wiped clean, no worries. Works for them . . . why not for the rest of you, who now didn't lose your identities ('cause it was wiped clean -- a new slate, as it were).

Gotta cut the VA the slack now. Just a stupid teenage prank, that's all. Oh look, here's some shiny string . . .

Now, regardless of if it's possible, do we wanna bet the farm on it? I sure wouldn't.

Unless the teenagers were professionals in computer security, they may not have erased the files thoroughly enough to prevent recovery of the information.

the files normally? Or even to do a quick format?

please continue with your normal daily business.

i've put fraud alerts on EVERYTHING financial in my life. don't think for ONE FUCKING MINUTE i'm going to believe "my" government NOW and drop my guard

fuck that shit.

garden.

if the teenagers didn't know that the notebook was a VA employee's, the standard operating procedure when selling to a pawn shop or the like is to wipe the HD and install a new operating system.

Yes, its possible that the NSA or other TLA (or big monied organization) could retrieve the data from a formated (and overwritten) hard drive, but its not particularly likely unless they know which specific laptop to target.

was this data 'in the wild' in the first place? Do these people work from home? If so what safe guards are in place?(encryption) Has anyone seen anything about why this was in the home in the fist place and what is going to be done with the employee?

But because the data may have been erased, that makes it all better.
:sarcasm:

What a LOAD OF STEAMING HORSE SHIT! Now I'm really thinking this was an inside job.

Have they caught the thieves or thief? are they in Guantanamo now getting the info tortured out of them?

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/isvet/1149852765266930.xml?isvet&coll=2

Friday, June 09, 2006
Staff and wire reports

Washington- An Ashtabula veteran who says his June disability check was diverted to a fraudulent bank account fears his problem resulted from the theft of a laptop computer that contained records on 26.5 million U.S. veterans, Rep. Steve LaTourette told Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Nicholson said he didn't know whether 33-year-old Steven Michel's personal data was compromised by the May 3 theft from a VA employee's home and promised to help resolve the case. He called it the "first incidence" of identity theft he's heard of since the security breach.

"If it's not related, it's good news for the VA," LaTourette told Nicholson at the Thursday hearing. "If it is, you've got a big problem."

On June 1, Michel noticed that his $873 disability check hadn't been deposited to his bank account, as it has been for years. The VA told Michel, a Gulf War era veteran with congestive heart failure, that it had deposited his check into a "new" bank account. Michel immediately visited the VA's Cleveland office to correct his records and contacted LaTourette...

("Without seeing the proof myself, I don't care what they tell me over the phone," said Michel, a Gulf War-era veteran who has a heart condition. "My trust with the VA has been shattered.")

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1149928924191950.xml&coll=2

Saturday, June 10, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau

Washington - The theft of a laptop computer that contained records on 26.5 million veterans had nothing to do with the diversion of an Ashtabula veteran's June disability check into an incorrect bank account, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday.

The unauthorized change to 33-year-old Steven Michel's account was put into the department's computer system on April 27, almost a week before the computer theft from a VA employee's Maryland residence on May 3, said department spokesman Matt Burns...

"Without seeing the proof myself, I don't care what they tell me over the phone," said Michel, a Gulf War-era veteran who has a heart condition. "My trust with the VA has been shattered."

VA spokesman Burns said Michel's earlier check wasn't affected because department computers didn't process the April 27 change until May 3. Burns said the VA is still investigating the cause of Michel's problem but "can say with certainty that it was not related to the recent data
theft."...

I just got a letter from the VA telling me about the theft....today.
I saw something on the news about a company that is giving 3 months free credit monitoring for vets:

http://www.lifelock.com/images/VeteransLaunch.htm

Makes ya wonder if the unidentified "teens" mighta worked for this outfit...

Course, my tinfoil hat might be a *bit* tight today.