Special Legislative Update for June 9, 2006, Regarding Stolen VA Records
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Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:28 AM
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Subject: Special Legislative Update for June 9, 2006, Regarding Stolen VA Records

This from Editor of The Retired Enlisted Association
Concerns all veterans and military retirees
(Pass on to your listings)


 Special Legislative Update for June 9, 2006, Regarding Stolen VA Records
 
SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE ALERT

On Thursday of this week, TREA’s Deputy Legislative Director, Larry Madison, participated in a meeting that Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson had with a number of veterans’ service organizations. Nicholson called the meeting for the purpose of updating us on the situation regarding the stolen computer that contains personal data on millions of veterans, active duty, and Guard and Reserve personnel.

According to Secretary Nicholson, they still have not determined all of the data that was stolen. It is an on-going process that will take several more days.  The VA employee who took the data home with him took it on several computer disks (CDs) and then loaded the information onto the hard drive of this laptop computer. It was the computer that was stolen. They have all of the CDs and they are analyzing each of them to try and determine what and how much data was taken.

They emphasized to us that NONE OF THE DATA WAS LOST. They have all of the data on those CDs. But there was so much data that it takes a long time to go through each CD and compare them to each other because one individual could appear on more than one CD. Prior to our meeting, the press reported that, in addition to the 24 million veterans, there are about 2.2 million active duty personnel on the disks, as well as several hundred thousand Guard and Reserve personnel.

Please remember that when you hear the reports on the number of people affected, those numbers could change as VA continues to go through the CDs. The important thing is to learn whether or not your information was included in the stolen data. Secretary Nicholson stressed that there has, so far, been no indication that the data is being used by anyone for fraudulent or criminal purposes. In fact, they believe the computer was probably stolen by “kids” who take the hard drives from computers, erase them, and then resell them to high school or college students for a fraction of the price of a new computer.

However, since they don’t know that for sure, they are assuming the worst case.

We were told that VA is sending out letters to everyone whose name appears on the disks involved, advising the individuals of the situation. This will be an on-going thing, since it is possible they will continue to discover new names until they have gone through all the disks.

TREA asked Secretary Nicholson what VA was recommending veterans do in order to protect themselves from potential credit fraud.

He explained that one way to monitor your financial accounts is to review your credit report. By law you are entitled to one free credit report each year. Request a free credit report from one of the three major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, TransUnion - at www.AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.

Nicholson was also asked if the Department of Veterans Affairs was considering paying for a service that would protect affected veterans against consumer fraud. He said they have thought about it, but when TREA asked him if he would support legislation that would provide funding to pay for the protection, he declined to answer, saying that he’d have to consult with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget.

So far, the VA estimates they will spend at least $32,000,000 to fix this major problem. Since it was totally unexpected, they didn’t have it in their budget, but they told us they found the money in their information technology budget and their general operating expense account.

TREA will closely monitor this to make sure VA doesn’t start taking money from their programs for veterans in order to pay for the corrections.

In addition, Deputy Legislative Director Madison took part in a meeting on Thursday with the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Steve Buyer, and the House Majority Leader, John Boehner. Buyer told us they have estimated it would cost the government $40 per veteran to provide them with the credit protection service. But he also said one of the credit agencies has offered to provide the service free of charge. He did not elaborate on what conditions might be attached to that offer of free service, but they are studying the entire problem very intensely.

TREA will continue to closely monitor this situation, and we’ll alert you just as soon as we learn any new information.

In the meantime, you should keep an eye on your credit card bills and finances. If any of the following things happen, you need to seriously consider the possibility that you have become a victim of credit fraud and take immediate steps to protect yourself.


YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)