Veterans organizations file lawsuit against VA

Veterans organizations file lawsuit against VA
Case is second in wake of stolen personal data controversy.

Published Tuesday, June 6, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - A coalition of veterans groups charged in a lawsuit today that their privacy rights were violated after thieves stole personal data on 26.5 million military personnel from a Veterans Affairs employee.

The class-action lawsuit against the federal government, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, is the second suit since the VA disclosed the May 3 burglary two weeks ago.

It demands the VA fully disclose which military personnel are affected by the data theft and seeks $1,000 in damages to each person - as much as $26.5 billion total. The veterans are also asking for a court order barring VA employees from using sensitive data until independent experts determine proper safeguards.

"VA arrogantly compounded its disregard for veterans’ privacy rights by recklessly failing to make even the most rudimentary effort to safeguard this trove of the personally identifiable information from unauthorized disclosure," the complaint said.

The VA said today it is in discussions with credit-monitoring services to determine "how veterans and others potentially affected can best be served" in the aftermath of the theft, spokesman Matt Burns said. He said the VA has received no reports of stolen data being used for fraudulent purposes.

Burns said the VA had no specific comment on the lawsuit.

Veterans groups have criticized the VA for a three-week delay in publicizing the May 3 burglary at a VA data analyst’s Aspen Hill, Md., home. The VA initially disclosed the burglary May 22, saying it involved the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers - and in some cases, disability codes - of veterans discharged since 1975.

Since then, it also has acknowledged after an internal investigation that the data could also include phone numbers and addresses of those veterans, as well as the personal information for as many as 50,000 active Navy and National Guard personnel.

In their lawsuit, the veterans groups say VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and other VA officials were at fault for the theft, which occurred even though the agency’s inspector general warned every year since 2001 that access controls were weak.

The suit also said the VA acted irresponsibly by failing to publicize the burglary after the data analyst promptly told his supervisors on May 3.

VA Inspector General George Opfer said his office didn’t learn of the crime until May 10 - and only through office gossip.

The veterans cite in part violations of a 1974 federal privacy law, which generally requires agencies to have protections to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal information.

The five veterans groups involved in the lawsuit are Citizen Soldier in New York; National Gulf War Resource Center in Kansas City; Radiated Veterans of America in Carson City, Nev.; Veterans for Peace in St. Louis; and Vietnam Veterans of America in Silver Spring, Md.