6-22-2006 - MESSAGE TO ALL VETERANS -
VA to offer free credit monitoring to vets Updated 6/21/2006 11:00 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans whose personal
information was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee's home last
month will receive free credit monitoring from the government to
protect against identity theft, the government said Wednesday.
Names, Social Security numbers and birthdates
for up to 26.5 million veterans and military troops were taken from a
data analyst's suburban Maryland home on May 3. Those eligible for the
credit monitoring will be any of the 17 million people who are known to
have had their Social Security numbers compromised.
Those people, who have already received warning
letters from the department this month, will be sent information on how
to receive the service, said a government official close to the matter
who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak publicly.
The VA will announce details of the proposal at a news conference later this morning.
Veterans groups and lawmakers from both parties
have blasted the VA for theft, which occurred after several years of
warnings by auditors that information security was lax. The data
analyst — who has since been fired — had taken the information home for
three years without permission.
The VA has also been criticized for waiting nearly three weeks — until May 22 — to notify veterans about the theft.
Earlier this month, more than 150 House
Democrats called on President Bush to request new emergency funding to
provide credit monitoring to veterans.
On Wednesday, the government official said the
VA was working with the Office of Management and Budget to identify
money to pay for the credit monitoring so that it will not "in any way
impact the world class health care of veterans."
The VA has said that notifying roughly 17
million veterans and military troops of the data theft, as well as
setting up a call center to answer questions, has cost the government
$14 million. An additional $200,000 a day is being spent to maintain
the call center.
Dept of Veteran Affairs - Directory
of Links
Military City Online Web Outpost-search for military members &
retirees (database 10.2 million) - http://www.militarycity.com/
Medical Network Directories -http://www.va.gov/bookmark/MedNet.htm
Medal of Honor - http://www.specialoperations.com/moh.html
Medal of Honor Winners who were POWs - -http://www.eos.net/rrva/nampow/POWMOH.html
Special Operations site - http://www.specialoperations.com/ |
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