VA personal data loss includes active personnel

Published Sunday, June 4, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Personal data on as many as 50,000 active Navy and National Guard personnel were among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month, the government said yesterday in a disclosure that goes beyond what VA initially reported.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said in a statement that his agency discovered after an internal investigation that the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of as many as 20,000 National Guard and Reserve personnel who were on at least their second active-duty call-up were "potentially included."

In addition, the same information on as many as 30,000 active-duty Navy personnel who completed their first enlistment term before 1991 also were believed to stored on the computer laptop and disks stolen from a VA data analyst at his Aspen Hill, Md., home on May 3.

The VA has previously said the stolen data involved as many as 26.5 million veterans discharged since 1975, as well as some of their spouses; veterans discharged before 1975 also were deemed at risk if they submitted claims to the agency. "VA continues to conduct a complete and thorough investigation into this incident, and those efforts are providing additional details about the nature of the data that may be involved," Nicholson said.

Veterans suspecting identity theft should visit www.firstgov.gov or call (800) FED-INFO.