Two USB drives that might have contained veterans’ personal information – including social security numbers – were stolen from a contractor on July 18, putting nearly 2,000 veterans at risk of having their data breached.
Washington Times (Twitter)
The Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane said it notified 1,915 veterans whose sensitive information may have been on the USB drives.
The USB drives were stolen when a Veterans Health Administration contract employee was on a service call at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, KXLY reported. The contract employee filed a police report after the drives were stolen.
One of the drives was used to move the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center’s Anesthesia Record Keeper (ARK) database from a server that wasn’t connected to a network.
“Although we cannot say for certain what information was stored on the stolen USB hard drive, we are alerting every veteran whose personal information resides on the decommissioned ARK server,” the VA said in a news release Wednesday, KHQ reported. “We have determined the information at possible risk may include full names, social security numbers, addresses, phone contacts, surgical and insurance information.”
The VA will be offering one-year complimentary credit monitoring to some of the veterans affected.
