Virginia VA Bars Home Use of Its Laptops

The Virginia Department of Veterans Services has ordered its employees to stop taking home laptop computers containing veterans’ information, writes TimesDispatch.com.

According to Vincent M. Burgess, the state’s veterans services commissioner, none of the department’s laptops or data is missing.

The article states that the policy change was ordered on May 31, after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced its data loss on millions of American veterans.

“The potential for the equipment and the data in it to be stolen from their home, just like what happened at the VA, was too great,” he told the Times Dispatch.

Former service members in Virginia were heartened by the news, and Burgess also stated that for less than $100,000, the agency plans to have a more secure computer system in operation by the fall.

The new system, which holds records on about 100,000 state veterans, will send veterans’ personal information directly to a secure central database rather than store it on the department’s laptops, the article reports. Those needing their computers to do work off-site will be able to take them during the day, but must return them to work that night. Additionally, if they need to access the information on veterans, the laptops will be able to access the secure central database.

For more information, read Data Theft at the VA.

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Compiled by Paul Kerstein