VA Loses More Personal Data

The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost two more batches of personal information. A laptop was stolen from the VA hospital in Manhattan, N.Y., even though it had been in a locked corridor inside a locked room and cabled to a cart. Although the VA says that 80 percent of the VA’s computers are encrypted, the data on this laptop were not. At risk are names and Social Security numbers for some 1,600 veterans who received pulmonary tests at the hospital. They are being offered free credit counseling. The VA, along with police and the FBI are investigating. In addition, computer disks containing names and personal data for about 1,400 current VA patients and deceased veterans treated in a McAlester, Okla. outpatient clinic were lost in the mail.