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 WASHINGTON (AP) – Personal data on more than 2.2 million
active-duty military personnel – not just 50,000 as initially believed
– were among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month,
the government said Tuesday.
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency was mistaken when it said over
the weekend that up to 50,000 Navy and National Guard personnel – and no
other active-duty personnel – were affected by the May 3 burglary.
In fact, names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of as many as 1.1
million active-duty personnel from all the armed forces, along with 430,000
members of the National Guard, and 645,000 members of the Reserves, may
have been included.
Can you imaging coming home from Iraq and discovering
that you’re in six figures of debt and have no credit anywhere? These
guys – active duty service men and women – are probably primo ID theft
material, as they have steady work and aren’t around to promptly investigate
felonious use of their credit.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars,
said the VA must come clean after three weeks of "this debacle."
"This confirms the VFW’s worst fear from day one – that the loss
of data encompasses every single person who did wear the uniform and
does wear
the uniform today," he said.
In the VA statement, Nicholson said the total number of military personnel
affected by the theft – 26.5 million – remains unchanged.
The VA initially assumed its data would only include veterans, but upon
closer investigation it realized it had records for active-duty personnel
because they are eligible to receive certain VA benefits such as GI Bill
educational assistance and the home loan guarantee program.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday demands that the VA fully disclose which military
personnel are affected by the data theft and seeks $1,000 in damages
for each person – up to $26.5 billion total. The veterans are also seeking
a court order barring VA employees from using sensitive data until independent
experts determine proper safeguards.
At the very least they should guarentee the credit
of service men and women who become victims of identity theft as a
result
of this outrage. And set up an office well-staffed with hundred of lawyers
to help the soldiers and vets sort out this mess. From what we hear,
being the victim of identity theft can cost thousands of dollars, take
years and require hundreds of hours of work to recover from. That even
one member of veteran or the Armed Services should suffer this as a result
of government negligence is intolerable and shameful.
And they wonder why they are having trouble meeting
their recruiting targets…
from AP
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