Update: Another VA computer missing

[lyger <lyger () attrition org>]

Courtesy InfoSec News and WK - story correction

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9002252

By Linda Rosencrance
August 08, 2006
Computerworld

Editor's note: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story
incorrectly said the stolen computer was a laptop.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday announced that a desktop
computer containing the personal information on 38,000 veterans is missing
from the office of Unisys Corp., the subcontractor hired to assist in
insurance collection for the VA's medical centers in Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia.

"VA's inspector general, the FBI and local law enforcement are conducting
a thorough investigation of this matter," Secretary of Veterans Affairs R.
James Nicholson said in a statement. Unisys told the VA on Aug. 3 that the
computer was missing from its Reston, Va., offices. The VA immediately
sent a team to Unisys to help search for the missing computer and to
determine exactly what information it contained.

The VA said it believes the data involved is limited to veterans who
received treatment at the two Pennsylvania medical centers during the past
four years. According to the agency, the desktop computer may have
contained patients' names, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of
birth, the names of their insurance companies, billing information, dates
of military service and claims data that may include some medical
information.

The VA estimates that the computer contained information on approximately
5,000 patients treated at a center in Philadelphia, approximately 11,000
patients treated at a Pittsburgh facility and about 2,000 deceased
patients. The VA is also investigating the possibility that the computer
contained information on another 20,000 people who received care through
the Pittsburgh medical center.

[...]



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