Personal information on about 2.2 million active-duty, National Guard and
Reserve troops was stolen last month from a government employee's house,
officials said on Tuesday in the latest revelation of a widening scandal.
National Guard troops
patrol outside a house fire in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans, September 8, 2005. Personal information on about 2.2 million
active-duty, National Guard and Reserve troops may have been stolen last
month from a government employee's house, officials said on Tuesday in the
latest revelation of a widening scandal.
[Reuters] |
This means nearly all current U.S. military personnel may be at risk for
identify theft, the Pentagon said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said the information, including names,
Social Security numbers and dates of birth, may have been stored in the same
stolen electronic equipment that contained similar personal data on 26.5 million
U.S. military veterans.
Lawmakers and veterans' advocates have expressed alarm that the government
failed to safeguard the data, which in the wrong hands could be used in credit
card fraud and other crimes.
Law enforcement agencies investigating the incident have no indication the
stolen information has been used to commit identity theft, officials said.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson disclosed last month that
unidentified burglars on May 3 broke into the Maryland residence of a Veterans
Affairs data analyst who had violated official procedures by taking the data
home. The thieves stole equipment containing the veterans' data.
The government over the weekend said personal information on about 50,000
active-duty, National Guard and Reserve personnel may also have been involved in
the theft.
But now Veterans Affairs said that as it and the Pentagon compared electronic
files, officials discovered that personal information on as many as 1.1 million
military members on active duty, 430,000 National Guard troops and 645,000
members of the Reserves may have been taken in the theft.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said, "We want to encourage service
members to be vigilant and carefully monitor their personal information and any
statements related to recent financial transactions."
Whitman said the Pentagon was helping Veterans Affairs inform the affected
military personnel about steps they can take to protect against identity theft.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it receives records for all military
troops because they become eligible to receive certain benefits, such as GI Bill
educational assistance and a home-loan guaranty program.
Veterans groups have criticized the government for allowing personal data to
be compromised and for responding slowly to the theft. Officials have said
Nicholson first heard of the May 3 crime on May 16 and only informed the public
on May 22, almost three weeks after the theft occurred.
"VA remains committed to providing updates on this incident as new
information is learned," Nicholson said in a statement.
Nicholson previously has said the senior career data analyst who took the
information home would be fired and that a senior official in whose office the
employee worked had been placed on administrative leave. Another senior Veterans
Affairs official has resigned.
The burglary from the employee's home in Aspen Hill, Maryland, involved a
laptop computer with an external disk drive, officials have said.
Identity theft, or obtaining personal or financial information about someone
else to make transactions in that person's name, has mushroomed with the growth
of the Internet and electronic business.
