CNN: Agency chief: Data on stolen VA laptop may have been erased

Spin Alert!!

Thursday, June 8, 2006; Posted: 2:42 p.m. EDT (18:42 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thieves may have erased personal data on millions of veterans that was on a laptop they stole, the secretary of veterans affairs said Thursday.

At least, that's the burglars' modus operandi, Secretary James Nicholson said at a hearing before the House Government Reform Committee.

The laptop was stolen in May from the home of a Veterans Affairs employee who, in violation of agency regulations, took it to a private residence.

It contained Social Security numbers, names and addresses for more than 26 million veterans as well as possibly millions of current service members and reservists.

Nicholson said the burglars in this case may have been the same ones who committed similar burglaries in the area. In other cases, information on the computers was quickly erased and the units resold.

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The reward offered by the Montgomery County Police Department.

"Then" the laptop was resold.

What possible purpose could it serve to have that type of data reside on a laptop, as opposed to being on a secure server someplace, with more limited access. Do VA employees need to take home the personal data of millions of vets in order to do homework in front of the teevee at night? Why isn't data like this better protected?

Oh, wait...it's our government. Never mind.

tables that could have been done from his home via a secure remote connection, common in most large computer facilities. Something stinks about this. It makes no sense as told.

it was erased I would reckon.
Save them some trouble if they are that lucky.

Here's a GD thread.