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Title: Stolen VA laptop recovered
Source:
CNN (AP)
URL Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/29/vets.security.ap/index.html
Published: Jun 29, 2006
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2006-06-29 11:50:41 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 78
Comments: 4
Stolen VA laptop recovered Thursday, June 29, 2006; Posted: 11:22 a.m. EDT (15:22 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has recovered the stolen laptop computer containing sensitive data for up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced Thursday. Nicholson also said there have been no reports of identity theft since the May 3 burglary at the Maryland home of an agency employee. "There is reason to be optimistic," he told reporters just before the start of another in a series of hearings Congress has had on one of the worst breaches of information security. "It's a very positive note in this very tragic incident," Nicholson said. Nicholson offered no immediate details on how the laptop was recovered. Newly discovered documents show that the VA analyst blamed for losing the laptop had received permission to work from home on data that included millions of Social Security numbers. "From the start, the VA has acted as if the theft was a PR problem that had to be managed, not fully confronted," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-California. "They're trying to pin it on this one guy, but I think it's other people we need to be looking at." According to the documents provided to The Associated Press, the analyst, whose name was being withheld, had approval as early as Sept. 5, 2002, to use special software at home that was designed to manipulate large amounts of data. A separate agreement, dated Feb. 5, 2002, from the office of the assistant Veterans Affairs secretary for policy and planning, allowed the worker to access Social Security numbers for millions of veterans. A third document, also issued in 2002, gave the analyst permission to take a laptop computer and accessories for work outside of the VA building. "These data are protected under the Privacy Act," one document states. The analyst is the "lead programmer within the Policy Analysis Service and as such needs access to real Social Security numbers." The department said last month it was in the process of firing the analyst, who is now challenging the dismissal. VA officials have said the firing was justified because the analyst violated department procedure by taking the data home. They also said he was "grossly negligent" in handling sensitive information.
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#1. To: aristeides (#0)
What a horrible article - easy to see why no one would put their name to it.
Just like this govt to screw the little guy. If he had the software approved to use at home, then he was just doing what he was told he could - his superiors are to blame, but nothing will happen to them, of course. I hope he wins his fight against dismissal.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
I still don't understand whose info was on that computer. News reports say it was people discharged after 1975, but I know a WW2 vet who was discharged in the 1940s and never had a claim with the VA, and still got a notice letter.
Who knows where that data has been copied to or how many times. No ID theft today indicates the thieves are smart enough to be patient. There's a chance it was an accident, but I keep thinking about those harddrives that were "removed" from Los Alamos, not that this is related, but it's so familiar. Chicago Tribune June 15, 2000 Missing Nuclear Lab Secrets Spark Call to Tighten Classification Rules By John Diamond Washington Bureau A missing piece of computer hardware no larger than a deck of cards contains "encyclopedic" amounts of information on nuclear weapons design and could have been taken from a vault without any record by any one of two dozen people, federal officials said Wednesday. Despite its sensitivity and the volume of information it contained, the computer hard drive was not classified at the highest level. Energy Department security specialists now say the U.S. government must revisit its classification system to address the vulnerabilities posed by packing vast numbers of secrets into easily portable computer hardware and software. This certainly clears up the matter.
#2. To: aristeides (#0)
#3. To: aristeides (#0)
I've already said too much.
#4. To: aristeides (#0)
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