http://fcw.com/articles/2009/01/28/va-settlement.aspx By Mary Mosquera FCW.com Jan 28, 2009 The Veterans Affairs Department has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit filed by veterans over the risk of potential identity theft when a VA laptop PC that contained their sensitive information was stolen in 2006. The laptop contained files with personally identifiable information on millions of veterans, such as names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Attorneys for the VA and the veterans filed legal papers Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to settle the suit, and a judge must approve the terms of the settlement. The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2006, asked for $1,000 in damages for every veteran whose data was put at risk. After the theft, the VA offered to provide credit protection for veterans whose data was on the laptop thieves stole from the Maryland home of a VA analyst. Law enforcement officials later recovered the laptop PC, and forensic investigators determined that the criminals had not accessed sensitive data, department officials said. “We want to assure veterans there is no evidence that the information involved in this incident was used to harm a single veteran,” a VA spokeswoman said in a statement. [...] _______________________________________________ Best Selling Security Books & More! http://www.shopinfosecnews.org/Received on Thu Jan 29 2009 - 02:09:09 PST
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