Oops! The VA did it again!

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 02:54:39 -0400 by Bull

Do you remember last May when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that someone had walked out with a computer hard drive containing a metric butt load of private VA patient data? Remember how we were promised increased security and tighter controls on our personal data?

It has happened again. Here, read this from Computer World…

February 13, 2007 (Computerworld) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday began notifying 1.8 million veterans and doctors whose personal information may have been on a hard drive lost Jan. 22 that their data could be at risk. When the agency first reported the drive missing on Feb. 2, it said just 50,000 identities were involved.

In a weekend update, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said that an investigation led by the department’s inspector general had concluded information on 535,000 veterans might have been kept on the drive, along with data on 1.3 million physicians not associated with the VA.

According to the office of Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), some of the veterans’ information included names and matching Social Security numbers. The data on the doctors, said Davis in a letter posted to his Web site after a briefing by VA, included physicians’ billing information and codes for Medicare services, which “could potentially be utilized for Medicare billing fraud.”

According to the VA, the portable hard drive was reported missing by an employee at the Birmingham, Ala., VA Medical Center on Jan. 22. An investigation was launched the next day. Davis’ district includes the city of Birmingham.
(more)

Ok. This drive was taken on or before Jan. 22nd. The report you just read was dated Feb 13th, in a computer rag, no less!

Yet only today was The Bull notified by snail-mail that my personal info may, once again, be out there for the general use of any criminal desirous of using my name to commit fraud, or worse - to come to The Pasture for (he may suppose, to his seriously dog-chewed end) easy pickin’s! No foolin’, here’s the letter, (private info folded out, of course). (Just click on the thumbnail pic for the larger version.)

Simply put, Dear Reader, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!

I’ve been too busy with other projects to post of late, and now that there was some spare time I was just about praise the VA for some improvements in attitude I noticed while at the VA Clinic here in Mobile, AL this week. Now this. Again.

How many Veterans must get screwed by identity thieves, or killed in their homes, before the Department of Veterans Affairs gets busy and tightens security on their own people? How many of my Dear Readers, I wonder, are even aware that the Department of Veterans Affairs maintains its very own police force? They do! But these cops mainly just roam around the facilities tossing out elderly men who raise their voices at the clerks who like to pretend that patients don’t exist. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, “Bad-Man Bart” or “Thieving Thelma” is stealing thousands upon thousands of Veterans files and Government property, (the hard drive).

The Bull refuses to take the same tack as the Democrats and blame the Dept. of Veterans Affairs problems upon President Bush. That goes far beyond ‘dumb’ and enters the Twilight Zone of ignorance. The sad truth is that the “VA” has been as screwed up as Hogan’s Goat practically since it began. Wallowing in red tape and political shyte through, (and because of), both Republican and Democrat administrations the VA has somehow always found a way to screw the very Veterans it was set up to serve - much like America as a whole, I’m sad to say.

Before anyone decides to call me down for that last line, you should ask yourself a couple of questions. For example, “When did I last thank a Veteran for his service?” -or- “When I last overheard someone denigrating Veterans did I stop it or at least try?” -or- “When the Left Wing Loonies spit on troops returning from war, do I do anything to stop it?” There are a thousand other possibilities, but these three will do to make a point. That point is thus: If you can’t make a positive answer to these questions, then simply shut-the-hell-up. You’ve got no legs to stand on and argue with The Bull.

Do you really want to help stop this crap and help out Veterans? Get on the phone to your Senators and Representatives and tell them to stop trying to put everything and its mother on George Bush’s doorstep, quit acting only for the political gain of their particular party in the next election, and get busy taking care of the Nation’s business! A part of the business is taking care of the brave men and women we send off to war. Any war, not just a popular one.

Now I’m going back to bed. It is 4AM.

Bull, out!