Personal data on millions of U.S. veterans stolen
Personal data on 26.5 million U.S. veterans was stolen from the residence of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee who was not authorized to take the material home, exposing them to possible identity theft, the department announced today. The data included names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for the military veterans and some spouses, the department said. There has been no indication that the data — which is related to everyone discharged from the military since 1975 — has been used for identity theft. “We are going to send out an individual notification letter to every veteran to the extent possible” warning them of the risk of identity theft, said Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson. Nicholson said the theft of the data from the employee’s home took place this month, but declined to identify the worker involved, the location of the burglary or how long the employee had the data at his home. The FBI said the theft occurred in the Maryland area and is being looked at by the FBI’s Baltimore field office.