Government Response Demanded for Veterans Security Breach

We are proud United States Veteran's or concerned citizens whom were recently informed of the Security Breach of the Department of Veterans Administration Veterans Affairs Laptop. We wish to first express our extreme disappointment of the US Governments handling of the situation, especially the fact that it took 2 weeks for the breach to come to the attention of the public. Such a delay resulted in an increased threat to private security by eliminating our option to take rapid measures to secure our accounts and identities.

Our real concern here is that our private information is out there and no Government Agency is currently taking personal responsibility for it. There was enough information on that laptop for someone to completely steal our identity (D.O.B. and S.S.N.) and now we are expected to have to pay out of our own pockets for credit monitoring services due to a government employees irresponsibility.

We demand the following actions as a result of this incidence:

1. We demand the diligent prosecution of the individual responsible for the security breach, whether it is in the form of a substantial fine or jail time, as well as his/her termination from government employment as a result of breaking government protocols regarding information security. Such protocols have been set forth within Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002. An example must be made to demonstrate the seriousness of such actions!

2. We expect the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a program to cover the cost of establishing a credit monitoring service for a minimum period of one year following this security breach with the tri-credit monitoring agencies to watch for suspicious credit activities.

3. We furthermore expect laws to be enacted to prevent such security failures to happen in the future. Such measure should include removal of all Social Security numbers from Department of Veterans affairs computers and replacement of such numbers with a non-security threatening Veteran ID numbering system.