You absolutely stupid motherfuckers. You’ve possibly compromised 23 million vets with your stupid actions and complete lack of security, and have now alerted whomever stole the information as to its value.
Appropriate steps? What appropriate steps? I can’t change my SSN, which is kind of an important detail, doncha think? Am I supposed to liquidate all of my retirement and investment accounts, cancel my credit cards and close my bank accounts? What the motherfucking pluperfect steaming hell were you morons thinking!
A little fucking late. All records from 1975 to present were on that drive, so a repeat isn’t really necessary, now is it. Jesus on a fucking baguette. If this information isn’t recovered, it’s a potential disaster for all vets.
Oh I don’t know. In basic training they stenciled our social security numbers on our duffel bags, which we then carried through crowded airports. When we left the service, they advised us to register our DD214s at our local courthouses. It’s not like they can fix any of that retroactively, either.
Unless you have information that I don’t, from what I can tell from this news report they’re doing pretty much all they can about it. The data definitely shouldn’t have been taken home from work, and should have been encrypted somehow, but that’s really the analyst’s fault. From what I can tell from the news article (which isn’t much), they seem to be handling the situation fairly.
A while back a computer was stolen from Papa Tiger’s company that contained a lot of employee data. Even though they weren’t sure he was one of the people whose information was stolen, the company provided him as well as everyone else who might have been involved with a free year’s monitoring of their credit bureau records. He gets immediate notification of anything new, and a monthly update of all activity. He’s continued it since that point since it just seems prudent to do so. It’s not really that hard to keep half an eye on your financial records.
Of course, the idiot who took this info home deserves to receive some special reward. Maybe send him on a circuit tour of American Legion and VFW halls around the nation?
Well, thank god they’re doing everything they can do after the fact. That sure fixes everything in my book. But then they’re probably not the people who risk losing a significant chunk of their money and having their credit ratings destroyed. As long as the blame can be allocated after the deed is done (sorta like Katrina, no?), then everything will be just peachy.
Just wait till all those SS numbers find their way to NIGERIA! The SS admin will be send billions to retired vets in Africa! not to mention the sale of these numbers to illegal immigrants…does the SSA check if somebody listed as age 76 starts working again?
What I can’t understand is why banks and credit card companies use SSNs in such stupid ways.
“Oh, you say you’re Lemur866. OK, smart guy, what’s your SSN? You know your SSN? Well, that proves you’re you!”
The use of SSNs as passwords is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. An SSN is not a password, it is a user ID. It is public information. The fact that someone could rob me just by knowing my SSN leaves me shaking with rage. Not at the thief, but at the company that will hand over money to someone who knows my SSN.
I could certainly understand if they’d decided to sit on the story until a more thorough investigation of the actual theft was complete. I assume they’re weighing the vets right to know and to begin protecting themselves against altering the thieves and/or anyone they hock the laptop to as to the data’s actual value.
Best case would have been to recover the data and then ream the agency/employee responsible for it’s loss.
but they’re still weighing the vets, right? 'Cause I want to make sure I don’t get left behind on this one.
How can the offical word be that there is no belief that this wasn’t all deliberate on the part of the guy who took the data home? Unless he’s taking this stuff out of the office every night and leaving it on the back seat of his Pontiac, why shouldn’t I believe that he took it just so it can get “stolen”?
I just want to say that this sounds like it might be the basis for the first class-action lawsuit filed against a single individual. All of us vets are supposed to be monitoring our credit reports, now, because of this dimwit. Okay, AIUI, there are three credit reporting companies/bureaus and getting a credit report is a nominal $15 fee per company. So, that’s $45 per veteran… times 26 million vets affected…
This yahoo might want to sign up with the Guard, and request being posted to Iraq. He’ll be safer there.
(BTW, any else notice how the idiot who allowed this all to happen by taking the data home still hasn’t been ID’d? Sure sounds to me like he views privacy and personal information as something important to safeguard. When it’s his own, that is.)
That’s why I listed the nominal cost: If you’ve taken advantage of that already, as a regular precaution, do you skip your credit report because you’ve already used your ‘free’ one?
You can actually get a free credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies. So, if you stagger them out you can get three reports a year.
Not in a good way.