Stolen vet data included phone numbers

June 1, 2006

BY HOPE YEN




WASHINGTON -- Personal information on 26.5 million veterans that was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee not only included Social Security numbers and birthdates but in many cases phone numbers and addresses, internal documents show.

Meanwhile, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said Wednesday that he had named a former Arizona prosecutor as a special adviser for information security, a new three-month post that will pinpoint security problems at the VA and develop recommendations for improvements.

Three pages of memos by the VA, written by privacy officer Mark Whitney and distributed to high-level officials shortly after the May 3 burglary, offer new details on the scope of one of the nation's largest security breaches.

They show that a file containing 6,744 records pertaining to ''mustard gas veterans'' -- or those who participated in chemical testing programs during World War II -- was breached, and that a ''short file'' with as many as 10 diagnostic codes indicating a veteran's disability also was stolen.

At the same time, however, the memos suggest that the data might be difficult to retrieve by thieves.

''Given the file format used to store the data, the data may not be easily accessible,'' stated one memo.

On Wednesday, the VA did not say why it didn't immediately reveal that personal information such as addresses and phone numbers had been disclosed.

But the agency said it aggressively sought to protect veterans once Nicholson was informed.

AP