Veterans want VA to pay for credit checks after data theft

If I were a vet, I'd be calling my representatives on this debacle. Under the Bush administration, debacles are a daily occurence. Stars & Stripes headlines have never reported so many catastrophic blunders as under this president. Those blunders are due, in large part, to the incompetent people Bush appoints to head important positions. Jim Nicholson, former head of the RNC, is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Nicholson has been the Michael Chertoff/Brown of the VA since the day he was sworn in, on February 1, 2005.


http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=37420

A leading veterans group wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for every single veteran to obtain a credit check after personal data on 26.5 million veterans was stolen earlier this month.

Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., said Tuesday the department should cover those costs “for the foreseeable future” in response to the security lapse.

“This is the largest case of potential identify theft in the nation, and it’s caused by the government organization that’s responsible for the care and well-being of our veterans,” Davis said.

On Monday, the VA announced that personal information on about 26.5 million veterans and spouses was stolen from the home of a department employee. The list includes every veteran separated between 1975 and April of this year, and includes names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and some spousal information.

All U.S. citizens are entitled to one free credit report a year under legislation passed by Congress in 2003. But more extensive monitoring, such as monthly credit record checks, can cost about $100 a year.

who allowed the data to be stolen in the first place...
Unbelievable.

had a similar situation recently. They have paid for all former employees of this
company to have a year's subscription to Equifax at their cost.

vets will be facing down the road.

People can talk smack all they want about John, but I think he is a good man.

:wtf:

Suspect.

And apparently wasn't supposed to in the first place.

sending me an info packet. I also told his aid that veterans should not have to spend one penny, that all costs should be borne by the government. It was their fault, not ours. I also told them that when I called the VA number supplied, the automated response said the info had a fee of not less than 60 cents. Not upper limit was mentioned. It could become very expensive for veterans to find out if ours names were on that disk. I guess that department was privatized too.

If you are someone you know may have been compromised in this you can contact Experian (one of the credit reporting agencies) and file a "fraud alert". They will send this out to the other reporting agencies for you and your credit report will be tagged as requiring proof of identification before credit will be issued.

https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=SECURITYALERT

You can add a fraud alert message to your credit report to help protect your credit information. Fraud alert messages notify potential credit grantors to verify your identification before extending credit in your name in case someone is using your information without your consent.

We recommend that you review a copy of your personal credit report. If you believe that information in your credit report is inaccurate due to identity theft or fraud, contact us at the phone number on your report for assistance from a representative specially trained in consumer credit fraud.

Appreciate it.

They have so screwed America.... how far in debt are the American tax payers again. This country has gone from "the Land of Dreams" to the "land of Nightmares". Republicans are greedy fuckups.

that the agency, which he oversees, kept secret the data heist for two weeks. One wonders how much was scammed from the vets in that time period. Could this be Bush's way of paying down the national debt?

Nah... he is bankrupting the people, while neutering the government so there is no oversite nor govt agency strong enough to regulate. It's a corporate thieves' wet dream.

lebkuchen: does this translate into life cooker? Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut.