When you read the following two excerpts...you realize that the analyst knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not allowed.  I must assume there is some type of security checks of equipment coming in and out of the VA by employees...like maybe video!  This to me seems like a managed/sanctioned theft. Just someone threw a monekey wrench into the mix...shall we say "twist of fate".

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/vets.data/index.html

"I've got to ask -- and certainly I have to ask it of not only the VA but all of government -- why can a data analyst take all of this information home?" the Idaho Republican said. "That's a breach of security -- in today's concern about ID theft -- that is huge."

- snip -

"Nicholson said the analyst has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation but that no "ulterior motive" is suspected. The analyst is a longtime department employee but was not authorized to take the information home, he said."

by avahome on Tue May 23, 2006 at 12:19:56 PM EST

Wow, the news is starting to get pissed that nothing has been done for Vets and no help is being offered..

MA AG tips on what to do for VAs

If you believe you have been the victim of identity theft, you will need to take additional steps to protect your credit and your good name.  AG Reilly's office has resources to help you, including an identity theft brochure is available online. Additional information is also available at the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.  Consumers may also call AG Reilly's Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12940308/

So far, you've only received vague advice from the Veterans Affairs and other federal authorities, like 'check your credit.'

Here's a more specific checklist:

1. Institute a Fraud alert on your credit.
   
2. Consider a credit freeze.
   
3. Check your monthly statements.
   
4. Regularly check your credit report.
   
5. Don't fall for it    

The last comment is pretty good telling people not to pay for services.  I fear that the credit reporting people stand to make a lot of money from this.  (ChoicePoint!)  Either through VA and congress, or from individuals, the people who stand to make millions from the theft is the credit folks

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1148484159308770.xml&coll=7

Too bad it hasn't applied to the federal government. VA officials waited 19 days after the theft before alerting the public that veterans' identities might have been compromised. Their reasoning was that they hoped the thieves wouldn't understand what they had taken. Officials, fearing that publicity about the stolen data could prompt the laptop thieves to sell the information to skilled identity thieves, hoped to arrest the laptop thieves first.

By Monday, however, with no arrests made, federal investigators decided to abandon that strategy.

This makes sense.  I'm not so worried about why they waited 19 days to announce this.  They probably thought they might find it, but when was the FBI notified??

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12225487p-12966177c.html

Since 2001, the inspector general has reported security vulnerabilities related to the operating system, passwords, a lack of strong detection alerts and a need for better access controls, he wrote.

The material included the veterans' Social Security numbers, birth dates and in some cases a disability rating on how disabled a veteran is. The agency declined to say whether additional information regarding the nature of the disability was disclosed.

...
According to the Justice Department, burglars struck the home of the unidentified VA employee in early May and took a government-owned laptop with disks.
...

After the burglary, the employee promptly informed the VA, which did not tell the FBI until late last week, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk publicly about the investigation.

http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=15306

Nicholson, who's under bipartisan fire from Capitol Hill, said he initially left the matter to VA investigators rather than calling the FBI. He said he's asked the department's inspector general to hurry up an investigation to determine who was responsible for the time delay.

http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/articles/2006/05/24/villages/villages02.txt

"I think it's a terrible thing because there's information on there that's not to be publicized," said Harold Sievers of The Villages Memorial Park Committee.

He feared the disk included some information known only to the CIA.

HUH?! I think is just Joe Public's speculation.. I hope.

disability rating--a score of between 1 to 100 on how disabled a veteran is.

a career employee's Aspen Hill home was burglarized, apparently randomly, on May 3.

The VA has set up a call center, the cost of which is reportedly $11 million.

A full scale investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the VA Inspector General's office has been launched, according to Iron County Veterans Service officer Bob Morzenti.

by intranets on Wed May 24, 2006 at 02:59:53 PM EST

 Pass It On - Find More Pass That As Well!!

VA Data Stolen: Statement of VVAF
The news of this security breach is a wake up call to the VA and all federal agencies that are responsible for protecting citizens' personal information. Questions about VA data accuracy and security should be raised and examined. It appears that the VA did not have adequate measures in place to prevent an incident like this from happening. This pattern of lack of planning by the VA is troublesome and produces serious questions with implications far beyond this serious breach. The millions of veterans who have served our nation and the more than a million men and women who are currently fighting the Global War on Terror deserve an explanation and the assurance that the VA is up to the task of serving our veterans

Personal Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions at Risk Of Identity Theft
As many as 26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary Jim Nicholson said yesterday.

Veterans want VA to pay for credit checks after data theft
A leading veterans group wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for every single veteran to obtain a credit check after personal data on 26.5 million veterans was stolen earlier this month.

Source: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days

Buyer to investigate VA data breach

VA didn't disclose theft for 2 weeks

Calling the government's VA Data Theft Hotline

by jimstaro on Wed May 24, 2006 at 06:59:53 PM EST

Administrative leave...............something is wrong here - this sounds like an internal coverup.   Getting my mind around this I have to wonder how many of the vets are deceased that are on this list which frees up ss# and we are not told that starting point of the records (I am not so naive to think it is tied to SS#'s.......) This is truly a nightmare.  My husband is a VietNam vet.

by avahome on Tue May 23, 2006 at 08:18:51 AM EST

just ran a segment on this and they were reporting the data was on a disk that wasn't protected with encryption or any other security.  If so, that is simply careless.  But this is not surprising with the government who uses vendors like ChoicePoint.  

by standingup on Tue May 23, 2006 at 08:33:35 AM EST

Yes, finally the light dawns...... Boy, to get a copy of the police report on the theft!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/washington/24identity.html

The authorities continued to investigate the activities of the employee, who is on administrative leave.

Officials familiar with the case said that while investigators had no reason to dispute the employee's account, they were nonetheless puzzled why little else of value besides the data-laden disks were stolen. In an added twist, the officials said investigators were having trouble finding the employee but did not think that he was necessarily trying to be evasive.

Several aspects remained murky, including how much communication, if any, there was between the Montgomery County police in Maryland and federal investigators about the disks.

by avahome on Wed May 24, 2006 at 11:36:45 AM EST

I took down the address.  It was too easy to find out the mid-level VA employee's name.  I worry for his safety due to the fact that he pissed off every Veteran in the D.C. area.

I think it would be bad for him if his name got out.  Of course turn-about-is-fair-play.  Maybe  I should post his SSN, DOB, Name & address

by intranets on Wed May 24, 2006 at 08:21:17 PM EST

Blatant incompetence...........
here

Under questioning, Nicholson acknowledged that his deputy secretary, Gordon Mansfield, was the highest level official told about the May 3 burglary, but did not act. But he declined to say whether Mansfield would be fired or why he might have kept quiet in what has become one of the nation's largest security breaches.

by avahome on Thu May 25, 2006 at 11:29:31 AM EST

I guess we scooped the media about the external hard drive.

What is new is that the thieves did not take some CDs with VA data on them.

There is a good timeline of incompetence, along with more info.  I really believe the career VA guy was a former head of Human Resources, that retired from (a major city in Florida) after being the head of that office for 27 years, and then took a cushy job doing data analysis.   Could be coincidence with names, but I doubt it from the "37 years since clearance" comment.

Here's a dump of articles.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aJ63AJf2RgPo&refer=top_world_news

 Michael McLendon, the department's deputy assistant secretary for policy, learned about the May 3 theft an hour after it was reported to police, the Post said. Dennis Duffy, acting assistant secretary for policy, planning and preparedness learned about the burglary two days later, the newspaper said.

Duffy informed Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Thomas Bowman on May 9 that as many as 26.5 million veterans' personal records had been stolen, the Post said. Bowman told Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield on May 10 and Nicholson was informed May 16, the newspaper said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/27/officials_waited_13_days_to_tell_va _chief_about_theft_of_data/

McLendon met with two high-ranking VA information security specialists the next day.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003019802_vets26.html

A number of CDs containing sensitive VA data were left in the house after the burglary, VA Inspector General George Opfer testified.

Not included, he said, were any VA electronic health records or "explicit financial information."

The affected veterans were those who have been discharged since 1975, plus veterans receiving VA disability compensation, Nicholson said. He said fewer than 100 spouses were included in a stolen electronic file listing people who had been affected by mustard gas.

Nicholson said the VA is sending letters to all the 19.6 million people whose Social Security numbers were stolen, urging them to "be vigilant" for signs of identity theft and advising them how to protect themselves. He said a special VA call center also has been set up.

Nicholson said the cost of the mailing and call centers is estimated at $25 million. The mailing alone will cost $10 million to $11 million,

Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna, meanwhile, sent a letter to Nicholson on Thursday asking that Washington veterans be provided a copy of the law-enforcement report regarding the data breach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501843.html

Authorities announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the laptop computer and external hard drive stolen May 3 from the employee's Aspen Hill home. The VA inspector general and the FBI are offering the reward. Montgomery County police asked anyone with information to call 866-411-8477.

the stolen information was not encrypted or "scrambled."

The electronic file contained names and dates of birth for as many as 26.5 million veterans who have been discharged since 1975, or who were discharged in any year and are collecting disability compensation from the department, Nicholson said. The file also included the Social Security numbers of 19.6 million of those veterans, he said. He said fewer than 100 spouses are believed to be included in the file.

Opfer said his office did not learn of the lost data until May 10, and then only through an offhand remark by a VA employee at a routine meeting.

The FBI was not told until May 17, and Nicholson did not make a public announcement until Monday.

He said the employee who took the data home last had a background check 32 years ago.

VA data analyst was "a dedicated federal employee who took work home with the hope of improving VA operations."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/26/washington/26identity.html

"He said that he routinely took such data home to work on it, and had been doing so since 2003," George J. Opfer, the department's inspector general

He said the employee, a data analyst, had been cooperating with the Montgomery County police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Moreover, he said that the data on some veterans included "numerical disability ratings and the diagnostic codes which identify the disabilities being compensated," enough knowledge for some unauthorized people to compute compensation payments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501237.html

Michael H. McLendon, VA deputy assistant secretary for policy, learned of the May 3 burglary less than an hour after the worker reported it to his supervisors and to Montgomery County police, according to the briefing document, given to congressional committees this week and obtained yesterday by The Washington Post. McLendon met with two high-ranking VA information security specialists the next day.

It also reveals new details about the 60-year-old man at the heart of the scandal. He is a senior-level career employee working as an information technology specialist in the Office of Policy. As a GS-14 level employee, he earns between $91,407 and $118,828 a year.

In a meeting with McLendon two days after the theft, the employee "assumed full responsibility, acknowledging he knew he should not have taken the data out of the office," the summary says. James J. O'Neill, VA deputy assistant inspector general for investigations, said in an interview yesterday that the employee is cooperating fully in the investigation. "He reported it [the theft] immediately, and he certainly could have kept it quiet," O'Neill said.

According to the document, Dennis M. Duffy, acting assistant secretary for policy, planning and preparedness, was told of the theft May 5. Duffy asked VA computer security specialists to determine the extent of the data lost and three days later asked them to draft a memo. McLendon convened a meeting of the Office of Policy staff May 9 to stress the importance of data security and had the data analyst discuss his experience.

It was not until that day, May 9, that Duffy informed VA Chief of Staff Thomas Bowman about the theft, suggesting that senior management should discuss the department's obligations to notify veterans whose data may have been compromised. Bowman told Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield, the department's No. 2 official, the next afternoon, but neither man informed Nicholson until May 16, the document shows.

Nicholson told the White House that day but did not inform Congress or the public until six days later, on May 22.

http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/05/25/ap2773713.html

"It wasn't until we interviewed the employee on the 15th that we knew we had a significant problem" involving a vast cache of Social Security numbers, birthdates and disability ratings, Opfer said. Only then did the VA bring in local and federal law enforcement to investigate.

by intranets on Sat May 27, 2006 at 12:32:21 PM EST

here
excerpt

WASHINGTON - A Veterans Affairs deputy assistant secretary who didn't immediately notify top officials about a theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal information is stepping down, citing missteps that led to the security breach.

Michael H. McLendon, deputy assistant secretary for policy who supervised the VA data analyst who lost the data, said he would relinquish his high-level post on Friday.

The data analyst also will be dismissed while the acting head of the division in which he worked, Dennis Duffy, has been placed on administrative leave, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said Tuesday

by avahome on Tue May 30, 2006 at 08:25:09 PM EST