VA chief says missing laptop containing vets' data has been found.

[Roon]

breaking on MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[UTUSN]

1. "reason to be opitimistic that the data has not been compromised"

sez VA chief. Consider the source.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

21. How to access the hard drive without accessing the hard drive

It's called DISK CLONING. Clone the disk then access the files on the clone. The original disk remains untouched according to all forensic tests.

Any computer-savvy teenager has the tools to do this.

[gratuitous]

2. That's good news -- I suppose

Hopefully all the publicity has made the data too hot to handle, at least for a little while. Like someone stealing an art masterpiece, wherever they tried to peddle it, knowledgeable people would spot it in a hurry.

But the public attention will die down soon enough, and we'll never know who might have had access to the information, what they did with it, and how they might use it some time in the future. It's a nasty little bomb that might go off at any time forever. Or maybe it'll never go off. But when is "never" over?

[Veronica.Franco]

3. "no reports of identity theft" ....

WASHINGTON - The government has recovered the stolen laptop computer containing sensitive data for up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced Thursday.

Nicholson also said there have been no reports of identity theft since the May 3 burglary at the Maryland home of an agency employee.

“There is reason to be optimistic,” he told reporters just before the start of another in a series of hearings Congress has had on one of the worst breaches of information security. “It’s a very positive note in this very tragic incident,” Nicholson said.

[northzax]

4. and on the same day that the Supremes bitch-slapped them, again

what a coincidence!

[pushycat]

5. Now the disinformation begins, just when Paul Hackett's lawsuit

gets going.
http://www.fcw.com/article94794-06-06-06-Web

<quote>... Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and four other veterans groups have filed a class-action lawsuit against the VA seeking $1,000 in damages for each veteran who can show that he or she has been harmed by the data theft.

Last week, Paul Hackett, a Marine reservist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who served in Iraq, and Matthew Page, from Boone County, Ky., filed a class-action lawsuit against the VA in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. It, too, seeks $1,000 in damages for any veteran damaged by the data theft.

The VA disclosed yesterday that the stolen database also contains records and private information on 10,000 to 20,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves called to active duty and for 25,000 to 30,000 Navy personnel who completed their first enlistment before 1991.

... The VVA suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also asks the court to prevent the VA from altering any of its data storage systems until a court-appointed panel of experts determines how to prevent future security breaches. The National Gulf War Resource Center, Radiated Veterans of America, Citizen Soldier, and Veterans for Peace joined VVA in its suit.<endquote>

No problem after all this? Ha ha ha

[MsKandice01]

6. Feds Recover Stolen Laptop With Veterans' Personal Info

Something doesn't sound right here.

Feds Recover Stolen Laptop With Veterans' Personal Info
Thursday, June 29, 2006

WASHINGTON — The government has recovered the stolen laptop computer and hard drive with sensitive data on up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel. The FBI said Thursday there is no evidence that anyone accessed Social Security numbers and other data on the equipment.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, in announcing the recovery of the computer, said there have been no reports of identity theft stemming from the May 3 burglary at a VA employee's Maryland home.

The FBI, in a statement from its Baltimore field office, said a preliminary review of the equipment by its computer forensic teams "has determined that the data base remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen." More tests were planned, however.

Nicholson said the laptop and hard drive were turned in to the FBI. No suspects were in custody.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201540,00.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. and tehy claim the data was not accessed

this is an unadulteerated pile of you know what

[Love Bug]

8. And we know this is true, how?

This could be b.s. just to get rid of the multi-bazillion dollar lawsuits.

Something hasn't smelled right about this whole thing from day one.

[havocmom]

12. I fear the info may now be in hands of GOP

For what, you may ask. For getting addresses of military personnel with home addresses in districts which may have a high rate of DEMs and/or minority voters.

Palast has an article about how absentee ballots for many people deployed overseas got challanged. The GOP sent mail TO THEIR HOME ADDRESSES, marked "Do Not Forward". When they got their letters back (cuz they knew troops were out of country) they used that as a reason to challange absentee ballots.

http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers

The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.

So, a data base with MILLIONS of vets and active duty personnel info was taken home by a VA employee, with boss's permission. (Stop and ponder that bit of curious behavior for just a moment.)Then it was reported stolen. Now it is back and the data is just fine according to somebody in charge of something or other.

Oh, and if you will recall, that compter with the data went missing the week Cheney announced he was sure the GOP would win the elections this November.

Connect the dots people. And make sure we have lots of poll watchers. Our military personnel need us to watch their backs so they don't end up being disenfranchised.

[MADem]

9. Ahhh, Faux News on the case!!!! ANYTHING to avoid having to

pay for credit monitoring for all of us poor baaaastids!!!

[partylessinOhio]

10. This is a real line of crap! We have no proof the laptop was recovered.

This sounds like a effort to silence the critics and calm the fears of the veterans that they may be victims of identity theft.

Everyone should now "forget about it!" Yah, right!

[Eugene]

11. If the drive was not wiped, we have a big problem.

They recovered the laptop intact. So intact that they can tell
that the database is untouched. The story a few weeks ago was
that a bunch of locals teenagers stole computers and sold them
for reuse.

Should we believe that the laptop was never booted and that the
database software never ran? Should we assume that the new owner
conveniently ignored a hard drive full of someone else's data?
This does not add up. The fact that the database still exists
is worrysome. The VA may have gotten extremly lucky today,
but I don't believe it.

[Rex]

13. What a load of crap; this has Black Bag operation written all over it.

"The announcement came at the beginning of a hearing before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing."

My how convienent. :eyes:

"It was confirmed to me by the deputy attorney general that law enforcement has in their possession the ... laptop and hard drive," Nicholson said in a statement at the hearing. "The serial numbers match..."

"An FBI spokesman said the laptop computer was recovered "in the area," but could not provide more specific information. Forensics tests showed "the sensitive files were not accessed," according to special agent in charge Bill Chase."

This is wedding cake/disney story bullcrap - 'everything is a-okay and just in time too! Go back to sleep or work...nothing to see here.'

IMO, more illegal personal info for the TIA beast.

[Corgigal]

14. MSNBC reported

that the VA won't release how they recovered it or where it was.

That doesn't sound like law enforcement who love to collect brownie points by release the above info. Something isn't right.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. Hmmm. With a USB connection, how long to copy all contents?

even on a POS windoze machine?

[SoCalDem]

16. Who believes that NO DATA was accessed? Not I..

It's like Mom finding your diary, and swearing that she did not read it :eyes:

[gizmo1979]

17. Is this so they can get out of

the 23 million it was going to cost to monitor vets credit?

[katty]

18. Jim Nicholson part of the Repub Dade Cty Election 2000...hmmm

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

19. hottest laptop in history

so far.

[SensibleAmerican]

20. Well I guess all is good then

:eyes: