The Veterans Affairs Department agreed to a $20 million settlement yesterday, after concerns of identity theft arose from a 2006 case of a lost laptop and external hard drive. A VA analyst admitted to losing the laptop, which contained the names, birth dates and social security numbers of over 26 million veterans and active troops.
The data was lost after the analyst’s home was robbed, but was later recovered by authorities. The analyst had taken the laptop home without clearance to do so.
The $20 million will be given in payments of $75 to $1,500 to veterans who can give clear evidence that they experienced emotional harm from the incident, or had expenses incurred from their stolen information.
If there is any money left over it will be donated to veterans-related charities.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Ecolab Inc. is on your list, but they were sued by a an Iraq Vet for violating USERRA by failing or refusing to promptly re-employ a Michigan veteran Stephen Alasin upon his return from military service. It cost them $118,000 and they were investigated by the U.S. Department of labor. This does not sound very Ethical to me. They should be removed from your list. Read http://www.militay.com
January 29th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Was told to register with credit report montoring company to watch over my credit. Was not satisfied with how the montoring was handled and not long enough. Signed up for additional montoring that cast me a fee. Worried about someone using my identity.