Full information is finally seeping out and it turns out that

the records were mostly of veterans and families of veterans discharged after

1975.

Although I suspected we weren’t being told the whole story simply

because I was a Washington-based reporter, I didn’t want to say it without

evidence but apparently the VA delayed telling the local police about this and,

when they did, they made it seem like a tiny incident by saying only a few

hundred personal records were stolen.

The original theft occured on May 3. 

It took weeks before the VA finally notified the FBI and
owned up to the vast size of the theft.

Some commentators have suggested that these records might be
worth upwards of $200 to $500 million to crooks.

But I don’t want to be nasty, perhaps everyone concerned in the

attempted cover up should spend one day in prison for every person whose

private information they exposed to identity thieves.

Certainly if the data falls into the hands of crooks it will

cost every one of those veteran’s and their families more than a day to fight

the system and attempt to fix the problem.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has refused to name the original employee, so let’s add him to the “should be in prison” list.

Since the VA has been criticized for years for poor security, the only innocents in this are the veterans and their families.

The Washington Post had this quote:

“”VA has not been able to effectively address its significant

information security vulnerabilities and reverse the impact of its

historically decentralized management approach,” acting Inspector

General Jon A. Wooditch wrote in a November 2005 report.”