[12amps]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/vets.data/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Authorities waited almost three weeks to alert the public that personal data on more than 26 million U.S. veterans had fallen into the hands of thieves, a government source said Tuesday.

The data were on a laptop and external drive stolen May 3 in an apparent random burglary from the Montgomery County, Maryland, home of a Department of Veterans Affairs computer analyst, said the government source, who has been briefed on the issue.

The government did not immediately announce the theft because officials had hoped to catch the culprits and did not want to tip them off about what they had stolen for fear they would sell it, the government source said.

On Monday, officials abandoned that plan and alerted the public.

The computer disk contained the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of every living veteran from 1975 to the present, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Monday.

Nicholson told reporters that the FBI and the department's inspector general are investigating the matter.

Nicholson and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said there was no indication that the information has been misused.

They do include some disability ratings and data on some veterans' spouses. (Watch the implications of the security breach -- 2:23)

Nicholson said the analyst has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation but that no "ulterior motive" is suspected. The analyst is a longtime department employee but was not authorized to take the information home, he said.

But the missing information could be gold for electronic identity thieves, who operate hundreds of Internet sites where personal information is bought and sold.

"It's a pretty dire situation," said Rutrell Yasin, technology editor of Federal Computer Week, which covers computer and information technology issues in the federal government. "You have to hope that information is not in the hands of people who know what to do with it."

Yasin said the theft should be a wake-up call to federal agencies.

"They should certainly have the necessary security on their computers, secure communications links that would protect personal data," Yasin said.

[InformedEJ]

My government at it again... I'm sure i'm on that CD, seeing as i'm a war veteran, and can't believe that all of that information is on 1 CD and 1 person was in controll of it. Another reason I don't trust government or the agencies that are under that title, and i work for one lol.... Seriously though, this is sad and i'm very pissed and plan to make formal complaints...not that it will do any good.

[emersonbiggins]

ahhh....a problem that neither government nor private industry can seem to shake - stolen laptops, CDs, USB flash drives with sensitive information.

Ridiculous.

[oneoblivion]

What in the world was that data doing on a laptop and a usb/firewire drive? That's absolutely ridiculous.

I'm currently a student majoring in network security and I have to say, the lack of forethought as it relates to security in the IT industry makes me cringe more and more every day.

Ah well, at least it keeps my job market growing.