Active Military IDs Among Stolen VA Data

Personal data of up to 50,000 active Navy and National Guard personnel were among those stolen from a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee last month, an Associated Press article on HeraldTribune.com reports.

This disclosure goes beyond what the government initially reported. After an internal investigation, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said in a statement that Social Security numbers and birth dates of up to 20,000 National Guard and Reserve personnel who were on their second active-duty call-up were “potentially included.”

In addition, the article reports, the same information on up to 30,000 active-duty Navy personnel who completed their first enlistment term prior to 1991 also is believed to be stored on the computer laptop.

The AP reports that the VA has previously said the stolen data involved up to 26.5 million veterans discharged since 1975, as well as some of their spouses; veterans discharged before 1975 also were deemed at risk if they submitted claims to the agency.

On Saturday, Nicholson told the AP there was no evidence that information on other active-duty personnel had been breached.

The VA has placed Dennis Duffy, the acting head of the division in which the data analyst who lost the laptop worked, on administrative leave.

To follow coverage of the VA, read Data Theft at the VA and An Expert’s Perspective on the VA Data Theft.

Keep checking in at our Security Feed page, or subscribe via RSS, for updated news coverage.

Compiled by Paul Kerstein