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Op-Ed: Vets Deserve Better Treatment After Data Theft
From: lyger <lyger () attrition org>
Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 17:26:05 -0400 (EDT)
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/05/vets_deserve_be.html Posted: Monday, May 22 at 03:14 pm CT by Bob Sullivan It is perhaps the largest theft of Social Security numbers to date. And the victims, who once put their lives on the line for their county, appear to be getting even less compensation than most victims of data theft. On Monday, the Veterans Administration announced that an employee had taken home data on 26.5 million veterans, and that data was stolen. It's a staggering amount, dwarfing other recent high-profile incidents at major U.S. firms like Citibank, ChoicePoint, and Bank of America. And yet, the support offered to victims by the VA is dwarfed by the support corporate America has offered in similar situations. Posted: Monday, May 22 at 03:14 pm CT by Bob Sullivan It is perhaps the largest theft of Social Security numbers to date. And the victims, who once put their lives on the line for their county, appear to be getting even less compensation than most victims of data theft. On Monday, the Veterans Administration announced that an employee had taken home data on 26.5 million veterans, and that data was stolen. It's a staggering amount, dwarfing other recent high-profile incidents at major U.S. firms like Citibank, ChoicePoint, and Bank of America. And yet, the support offered to victims by the VA is dwarfed by the support corporate America has offered in similar situations. It's become standard practice for data leakers to offer free credit monitoring to victims, so they are able to watch their credit reports daily for signs of misuse. The services are available from the credit bureaus, and cost about $10 a month. Corporations that leak data and foot the bill usually get big discounts. So far, the vets haven't been offered credit monitoring. Instead, the VA is reminding victims that they are entitled to a free copy of their credit report every year, and then basically wishing them good luck. [...] _______________________________________________ Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss () attrition org) http://attrition.org/errata/dataloss/
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- Op-Ed: Vets Deserve Better Treatment After Data Theft lyger (May 22)