Va Announces Theft Of Data On 26 Million Veterans

[Guest DON20906]

VA Secretary Nicholson just concluded a conference call with major veterans' and military service organizations to tell them that a VA data analyst took home the names, social security numbers and dates of birth on over 26 million veterans and others to work from home. The data analyst's home was burglarized and the computer and/or storage media containing the data was stolen. Local police, the FBI and VA's Inspector General believe the burglars were after computer harddware and do not know what they have. VA is going public with this in a press release later today.

Edited May 22, 2006 by DON20906

[Tbird]

I signed up for score watch at myfico.com it monitors for inquires balance changes or new accounts. Stupid VA

[Pete53]

I intend to request from Social Security a new SS# due to the fact that VA compromised my original number due to Idenity theft. After getting the new number I will notify my creditors of the change and warn them that if they divulge my number there will be serious consequences.

NAME, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER and DOB - - that's all the information needed to steal an identity?! How bizzare, and how very unoriginal. Can't the feds develop something more secure than a 9 digit system?! No, of course not, that would make it too hard for crooks to steal the moeny! Everytime I have to give my SSN for every day business, I laugh to myself thinking how I'm stupid and vulnerable this system really is. I'm as vulnerable as the system is designed to be. Maybe they created the social security system FOR crooks; after all, it's pretty dang simple to steal from people this way! You might as well be giving your money away for free! And, unless your rich and powerful, you simply can't get away from it . . ~Wings

[Berta]

Don said :

"Can a class action can be filed under FTCA? I doubt it because FTCA is an administrative remedy."

I think a class action civil lawsuit ,as a violation of the Privacy 5, USC 552 ,could be filed on behalf on 26,5 million vets.

I am sure if this is possible, lawyers will be posting this on the net.

Was the analyst performing his official duties by taking the work home?

From every news report I read and what was on CNN and other stations last night-

this employee acted on their own-

Someone on CNN -it was Wolf Blitzer's opening story, made the point, the thieves probaby didnt know what they took--but he also said how value this info could be weeks, months or even years from now.If the perps are sitting in some motel room hiding out they now know what they stole was not a lap top or PC they could sell -but a wealth of personal vet records- thanks to all the news reports-

These SSA lists could be sold in a heartbeat.

Just think the VA's budget is never really enough and now-

do they actually have to pay postage for 26,5 milion letters? not to mention the time this will take to

send these letters to 26,5 million vets.

Somone made a good point on TV that I mentioned too-yesterday

maybe I am naive but that aint a few discs or CDs, could one employee actually carry all this info out of the VA? 26,5 million vets is a long list.

I am sure the FBI has a parallel investigation going on.

I hope they start right inside the VA .

How much vet info have employees taken home and then didnt get burglarized?

I think vets should write to their Congressmen and Senators- or email them-

and complain because this incident highlights how screwed up the VA really is.

And I think Nicholson has put a big spin on it all- no one knows when this happened in May and

math isnt my forte but his figures and the 1975 cut off do not add up-

I think the VA has been carefully not to say Every vet has been affected.

[wayne]

I agree with Bertha. This seems awful convenient. I smell a rat. I think everyone from Nicholson on down should be fired. I know this is not the military but if a ship is involved in an accident, The Captain is responsible whether he is on the bridge or in his rack and would more than likely loose his command. So lets just see how this plays out.

By the way, think he might be working for the Commision?

LLEWELLYN

[Guest DON20906]

Don said :

"I think a class action civil lawsuit ,as a violation of the Privacy 5, USC 552 ,could be filed on behalf on 26,5 million vets."

Not without waiver of federal sovereign immunity. It's much more likely that Congress would set up a system to compensate and hold harmless veterans who are affected, rather than to allow itself to be sued.

SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY - A doctrine precluding the institution of a suit against the sovereign [government] without its consent. Though commonly believed to be rooted in English law, it is actually rooted in the inherent nature of power and the ability of those who hold power to shield themselves.

In England it was predicated on the concept that "the sovereign can do no wrong", a concept developed and enforced by - guess who? However, since the American revolution explictedly rejected this interesting idea, the American rulers had to come up with another rationale to protect their power. One they came up with is that the "sovereign is exempt from suit [on the] practical ground that there can be no legal right against the authority that makes the law on which the right depends." 205 U.S. 349, 353.

"tatutes waiving the sovereign immunity of the United States must be`construed strictly in favor of the sovereign." McMahon v. United States, 342 U.S. 25, 27 (1951).

11 U.S.C. S 106, "Waiver of Sovereign Immunity," provides:

(a) A governmental unit is deemed to have waived sovereign immunity with respect to any claim against such governmental unit that is property of the estate and that arose out of the same transaction or occurrence out of which such governmental unit's claim arose.

The interest served by federal sovereign immunity (the United States' freedom from paying damages without Congressional consent)

Federal sovereign immunity is readily distinguishable from the states' immunity under the Eleventh Amendment and foreign governments' immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The latter two doctrines allow one sovereign entity the right to avoid, altogether, being subjected to litigation in another sovereign's courts. Pullman Constr., 23 F.3d at 1169. Similar sovereignty concerns are not implicated by the maintenance of suit against the United States in federal court. Federal sovereign immunity has had such broad exceptions carved out of it that, as Pullman Construction concluded, "Congress, on behalf of the United States, has surrendered any comparable right not to be a litigant in its own courts." Id. In the present day, federal sovereign immunity serves merely to channel litigation into the appropriate avenue for redress, ensuring that "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." Pullman Constr. at 1168 (quoting Art. I, section 9, cl. 7).

Federal sovereign immunity is a defense to liability rather than a right to be free from trial.

The Supreme Court has ruled that in a case involving the government's sovereign immunity the statute in question must be strictly construed in favor of the sovereign and may not be enlarged beyond the waiver its language expressly requires. See United States v. Nordic Village, Inc., 503 U.S. 30, 33-35 (1992).

I am sure if this is possible, lawyers will be posting this on the net.

Was the analyst performing his official duties by taking the work home?

From every news report I read and what was on CNN and other stations last night-

this employee acted on their own-

Someone on CNN -it was Wolf Blitzer's opening story, made the point, the thieves probaby didnt know what they took--but he also said how value this info could be weeks, months or even years from now.If the perps are sitting in some motel room hiding out they now know what they stole was not a lap top or PC they could sell -but a wealth of personal vet records- thanks to all the news reports-

These SSA lists could be sold in a heartbeat.

Just think the VA's budget is never really enough and now-

do they actually have to pay postage for 26,5 milion letters? not to mention the time this will take to

send these letters to 26,5 million vets.

Somone made a good point on TV that I mentioned too-yesterday

maybe I am naive but that aint a few discs or CDs, could one employee actually carry all this info out of the VA? 26,5 million vets is a long list.

I am sure the FBI has a parallel investigation going on.

I hope they start right inside the VA .

How much vet info have employees taken home and then didnt get burglarized?

I think vets should write to their Congressmen and Senators- or email them-

and complain because this incident highlights how screwed up the VA really is.

And I think Nicholson has put a big spin on it all- no one knows when this happened in May and

math isnt my forte but his figures and the 1975 cut off do not add up-

I think the VA has been carefully not to say Every vet has been affected.

[Berta]

Someone at Military.com suggested the SSA numbers might have been sold before the VA guy even brought the stuff home-

The VA employee is from Wheaton, Md,but Sec Nicholson cant release his name due to the Privacy Act, (that's nice-much

Irony there)- and the latest from Washington Post and AP is that, regardless of the 'after 1975' discharge

statement by VA- if these were vets with claims- that might not even matter-they could have been discharged anytime.

I think the VA has tried to put lots of spin on this and I think ALL living vets might have been affected.