Protecting Vets' Personal Information
The VA works hard to keep veterans' personal information private and confidential. However, there have been breaches in security that have left some veteran's information exposed. Recently laptops containing the personal information of 26.5 million veterans were stolen out of the home of a VA employee who was not authorized to take the electronics home with him in the first place. His home was then burglarized and the information was stolen. Police believed that the information was not the target of the theft, but the laptops themselves were valuable to the thieves.
Directly after the theft the VA announced that they will be offering free credit monitoring services to all veterans whose information could have been accessed by the criminals. The laptops have since been recovered and the FBI has thoroughly gone over the access of information and believes that none of the personal information has been accessed. Since it is believed that non of the information has been tampered with and still remains confidential the VA now sees no further need for credit monitoring of the veterans who would have potentially been affected by this breech of information.
As a veteran it is important for you to safeguard your personal information against identity theft and fraud. The information that could have been retrieved included the names, date of birth, and social security numbers of millions of veterans that could be very harmful if a criminal decided to use this information.
The VA has access to confidential information on many veterans due to the fact that veterans provide the VA with private information in order to use benefits such as:
- College education and job training.
- The VA Home Loan Guarantee Program.
- Healthcare benefits.
- Life Insurance.
- Pension and disability benefits.
- Specially Adapted Housing Grants.
- Survivor's benefits.
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This only names some of the many benefits offered to veterans and their families. In order to access these benefits they must give the VA their personal information, and then the possibility always exists that this information could be stolen and used in a fraudulent manner.
For more information on the stolen data and what the VA is doing to safeguard your personal information from fraud contact your local VA Regional Service Center or go to the VA online site.
See a related article: Los Angeles VA Office Closing
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