Washington – Millions of veterans and active-duty troops whose sensitive personal information was lost by the Department of Veterans Affairs will receive some form of credit protection against identity theft, the government said Wednesday.
Separately, the Transportation Department inspector general’s office said that one of its laptop computers containing names, birth dates and Social Security numbers for 132,955 Florida residents was stolen July 27 from a government vehicle in suburban Miami.
Transportation officials were helping police investigate the theft of the laptop, which was stolen in Doral, Fla. It is believed to contain data for about 80,667 people issued commercial driver’s licenses in the Miami-Dade County area; 42,792 Florida residents holding airman certificates; and 9,496 individuals who obtained personal or commercial driver’s licenses in Largo near Tampa.
The laptop was protected by a password, and there was no evidence that the data has been used illegally, the department said.
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said his department had arranged for a data-analysis company to detect potential patterns of credit misuse for up to 26.5 million veterans whose names, birth dates and Social Security numbers were on a laptop and hard drive taken in May from a VA data analyst’s Maryland home.
VA subcontractor Unisys Corp. also agreed to provide one year of free credit monitoring for as many as 38,000 veterans after the company last week lost a desktop computer containing their data at its offices in Reston, Va.
Letters will be sent in coming days to veterans affected in the Unisys case describing how to sign up for the free credit monitoring.
“Protecting veterans from fraud and abuse remains an important priority for VA,” Nicholson said in a written statement. “Data breach analysis will provide VA with additional assurances that veterans’ personal information remains unharmed.”
The VA said ID Analytics of San Diego will provide the extra level of protection for those whose records were taken in the May 3 burglary.
