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CONGRESSMAN SAYS VA DATA THEFT RISK IS
ACCEPTABLE --
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) tells vets' meeting
that VA data theft
risk is worth the benefits provided to
veterans.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) really know
how to put his foot in it.
In a meeting with veterans, VA Secretary
Jim Nicholson was doing his best to reassure everyone that the VA was on
top of the data theft issue and that it wasn't going to happen again.
Then, Rep. Bartlett put in his two cents:
Mr. Bartlett said the huge volume of information the VA handles
opens up the department to security problems, but that this risk is
worth the benefit the VA provides veterans.
No, Mr. Bartlett, the risk is NOT worth
the benefit!
Was Bartlett asleep? Was he aware
he was speaking to a roomful of veterans? Does he care?
A look at Bartlett's voting record on
veterans' issues gives the answer.
Bartlett's voting record on the 2005 DAV
legislative agenda is a ZERO! He did not support one piece of
veterans' legislation!
Now you know why Bartlett thinks it's OK
to let the VA play with your personal information. He doesn't
care.
See all House and Senate voting records
here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/
old%20newsflashes%20MAY%2006/newsflash05-14-2006-1.htm
Story here...
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/
sections/news/display.htm?storyid=52038
Story below:
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VA struggles to regain trust
Leaders try to assuage fears as veterans voice
concerns at town hall meeting
By Alison Walker-Baird
News-Post Staff
FREDERICK -- The U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs is still struggling to regain the trust of thousands of military
veterans it serves, a town hall meeting Tuesday afternoon at a Frederick
American Legion post showed.
U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-6th, hosted the meeting with veterans and
their families with R. James Nicholson, the VA department's secretary,
at Francis Scott Key Post 11.
One veteran questioned the VA's ability to safeguard veterans' personal
information. The VA's regional office in Baltimore mailed the man other
veterans' names and Social Security numbers by mistake about 18 months
ago, he said.
Two more recent incidents have compromised the security of veterans'
personal information and forced the VA to tighten its security measures.
A laptop and hard drive were stolen from an employee's Maryland home in
May. The computer contained 26.5 million veterans' names, Social
Security numbers and birth dates.
Two Rockville teenagers were arrested in early August for the theft. The
FBI said the data wasn't accessed or copied.
In a separate event, Mr. Nicholson said an employee of a VA
subcontractor lost a desktop computer in early August that contained the
personal data of 38,000 veterans. The subcontractor, Unisys Corp.,
agreed to provide the veterans one year of free credit monitoring.
At Tuesday's meeting, Mr. Nicholson called the May computer theft a
"huge wake-up call."
He said the department is overhauling its security system to protect
veterans' information, including encrypting data, conducting routine
background investigations of employees with access to the data and
centralizing control of the department's information technology.
"We want to become the model for data security in government," Mr.
Nicholson said in interviews with reporters Tuesday.
Mr. Bartlett said the huge volume of information the VA handles opens up
the department to security problems, but that this risk is worth the
benefit the VA provides veterans.
Veterans' concerns
About 100 veterans attended the event, with several submitting questions
to the meeting's official panel.
Panelists included Mr. Nicholson; Mr. Bartlett; Dr. James Nocks,
director for the VA Capitol Health Care Network; Fernando Rivera,
director of the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, W.Va; and Dennis
Smith, director of the VA Maryland Health Care System.
Also on the panel were George Wolohojian, director of the VA regional
office in Baltimore; Kimberly Wright, director of the National Cemetery
Administration's Memorial Service Network; and Edward Koenig III,
director of the north regional office of TRICARE, the military's health
care system.
Panelists answered veterans' questions about scheduling follow-up
appointments at their VA clinic, VA pharmacists not being able to fill
non-VA doctors' prescriptions and clinics' use of nonallergenic products
and medications.
One veteran said the VA should build a clinic in northern Baltimore. Mr.
Bartlett suggested the department look into providing a van service to
take veterans to and from clinics.
Fort Detrick VA clinic
Fort Detrick's new VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, or CBOC, is
scheduled to open in the spring of 2008, according to information
distributed during the town hall meeting.
Fort Detrick's proposed $5 million clinic expands its existing Barquist
Army Health Care Facility. The CBOC, which would be adjacent to the
Barquist building, would provide primary care, mental health care,
routine EKGs and X-rays and specialty services to veterans and
active-duty military.
Construction is expected to begin next summer.
---------------
Larry Scott
