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Report on Stolen VA Disk Highlights the Lowlights of Veterans Affairs
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ShareJuly 13, 2006 9:26 AM
A lack of urgency and responsibility at "nearly every step" of the Department of Veterans Affairs transformed one employee's oversight into a near national disaster.
It all began in early May when a laptop containing highly sensitive information on 26.5 million veterans was stolen from a VA employee's home.
The information was never breached, and the laptop was recovered at the end of last month, despite the fact that VA supervisors didn't alert authorities until 13 days after the external hard drive disappeared.
In those 13 days, supervisors failed to realize the gravity of the situation, and strained personal relations between supervisors within the VA made the situation even worse, according to a new report released this week by Veterans Affairs Inspector General, George J. Opfer.
Supervisors chose not to act on the knowledge of the theft, waiting six days before alerting others. They told the burglarized employee, who did not have permission to take the information to his home, to "take a day off."
Upon being questioned, one of the supervisors called his office "one of the most dysfunctional organizations" in the VA and said "that it was one of the most hostile work environments he ever worked in."
It was this "general indifference" demonstrated by VA employees that magnified the original mistake, according to Opfer.
As for why the material was removed from the VA in the first place, the Information Technology Specialist said he brought the data home to work on what he called a "fascination project."
July 13, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
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we are amazed at the lack of attention given this matter by the government. We were there for them; why are they not there for us? C'mon people--get the lead out.
Posted by: C. Bolukbas | Jul 13, 2006 9:52:59 AM
blinded to the fact that intelligence should rule a company, state facility. rules are rules. Frightened people should not supervise other nor should intelligent people have to put up to stuipd nonsense. They should be fired.
Posted by: ruby | Jul 13, 2006 12:46:15 PM
Since a vast majority of politicians running (and/or ruining) this country are not vets, they could care less. Would not be suprised to see General Indifference promoted to head the Chiefs of Staff.
Posted by: tim | Jul 13, 2006 1:38:21 PM
A good manager can either make or break a department......... First of all, leading by example is paramount.
I can only assume there was no leadership........fire the bumbs!
Many people work from home on projects but log in to a secure server and intranet where queries, etc. can be monitored and documented. Also, is it too much to ask for security clearances and bonding? Cronies should not be welcome.....period.
Posted by: avahome | Jul 13, 2006 1:40:14 PM
The best thing that can be said about the VA is that it buy scripts in large enough quantities to provide them at rates Vets can afford. Beyond that, it is a quagmire of bureaucratic nonsense choking on its own size. Of course it's an environment of "general indifference," it is a government agency staffed by GS employees who, once they get past the probationary period, can't be removed from a job with a bomb. I know I work with them! The entire department from the Supervisor down to the dim bulb who took the data home should be sacked and brought up on felony charges. My data was on that laptop and I'm unhappy that he could even get it onto a laptop let alone get it out of the building.
Posted by: emilio | Jul 13, 2006 2:27:23 PM
I agree the people involved should be terminated and possibly prosecuted from the management level to the last offender. However, the stupidest thing about this is the practice of using data for analysis with personal information fields accessibly by non HR and non management personnel. This is totally unnecessary and easily remedied by the addition of a randomly generated ID field to be used in place of the personal information. I would be happy to devise a system that is secure but can't seem to get the government to even consider my resume much less listen to intelligent solutions that can fix systemic problems.
Posted by: shelenn | Jul 14, 2006 9:58:25 AM
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