VA Spreads Blame for Data Loss

Week of July 16, 2007

According to a recent report by the VA's inspector general, an information technology worker at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs did not properly secure data stored on an external hard drive that was lost or stolen in January. Then he initially lied about the scope of the data breach. But the 79-page report also blames officials at the VA's medical center in Birmingham, Ala., for letting the worker access "vast amounts" of information that was beyond the scope of the projects he was working on. Directors of the center were also taken to task for not ensuring that proper safeguards were put in place for securing data on external drives. For more information, read the entire report in a .pdf file.