You Call This Government?……
How could a government agency allow a person to “take-home” the personal records of 26.5 million veterans on a personal computer?…… One of which was probably mine, knowing my luck……. I guess they were going to do an “all-nighter” if they were going to process 26.5 million records in one night!….. But then, the personal computer was stolen in a burglary, so the person couldn’t been working too hard if they were not even around…… The V.A. saw fit to put this person on “Administrative Leave”?…… Give me a break, this person compromises the personal information of 26.5 million veterans by illegally taking “home” these records and is severely punished by being put on “Administrative Leave”!….. There are more holes in this story than a sieve and there is a lot more to the story than the government is telling the public….. I think it is time to wake-up and start voting out of office every politician now serving…… The unfortunate thing is that those who are really responsible aren’t elected, but appointed or hired and have enough power and/or hold over those who appointed or elected them that they are untouchable…… So, what do you do?…… I’m at a loss and it seems we are on a steep downhill slide in this country….
May 24th, 2006 at 10:08 am
“Give me a break, this person compromises the personal information of 26.5 million veterans by illegally taking âhomeâ these records and is severely punished by being put on âAdministrative Leaveâ!” Probably……….with pay, to boot.
“Iâm at a loss and it seems we are on a steep downhill slide in this countryâŠ.” I think this comment goes in the well, duh! section.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
This just seems like a boneheaded mistake. I can imagine someone running a report, having it on their laptop, and then just taking the laptop home–not to necessarily work on the report, just to work on other stuff. I bet this sort of thing happens all of the time. I guarantee you it happens all the time in the corporate world. Computers can hold lots and lots of data and in the absence of good process or data tracking, people carry data around with them all the time. I would be surprised if there weren’t a half dozen laptops in Seattle with sensitive Amazon.com info on them since they require that software developers be on-call and within 10 minutes of a computer.
I think we will continue to see this kind of thing until there is a clear way to attach movement restrictions to data, like preventing it from moving to mobile devices or through insecure networks. Unfortunately that kind of control will require big changes in software and hardware–not something that is likely to happen without a major mandate.
May 25th, 2006 at 8:52 am
You are probably right, Jek, but then, why is the news media not stating that the person just screwed-up and took the data home without thinking of how sensitive it was?…. The report is that the person took the material “without authorization”…. They make it sound as if it was on purpose and with ominous intent….. Are they setting-up a scapegoat?…..
May 25th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
This just keeps getting better and better….. This happened over three weeks ago – The Director of the V.A. didn’t even find out about it until last week – The FBI want the question the person who took the files, but they can’t find him – Supposed to be somewhere in the San Diego area – Social Security numbers with names and birth dates for sale on the Internet are up over 150 per cent!….. I just love this country and proud I’m a veteran, I just hope somebody else doesn’t want to be me!…..
May 27th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
Remember, The Media only tells about 1/2 of the truth about any given story and only the parts that help to bolster their spin on the story. therefore comment #3 answers itself. as for the Well Duh, any information on a guvmint owned computer should be considered “Sensitive” and therefore be subject to the same procedures as any secret information and not be removed from a secure area.