Stolen Laptop With Veteran's Personal Data Recovered

A fishy story at best according to many veterans, government sources say the employee who facilitated the alleged thefts by taking the millions of documents home, did not lose his job over it.

Photo courtesy: inhissteps.gospelcom.net

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - The stolen laptop computer that held personal data on more than 26.5 million veterans and active-duty, National Guard and reserve members has been found, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson announced Thursday. The computer was recovered Wednesday, and is now undergoing three to five weeks of forensic tests by the FBI to determine whether information has been copied or compromised in any way. Nicholson, speaking at the opening of a House Veterans` Affairs Committee hearing, confirmed that the hard drive had been recovered. Nicholson said law enforcement officials told him there was reason to be optimistic that the data had not been compromised This is a positive note in this very sad saga he said. Computer experts scoff at the claims, questioning why anyone would bother stealing sensitive documents and not copy them onto another computer. Veterans should not take comfort in the relocation of the laptop, as the theft of the documents is only the lastest lapse of security that has happened under the watch of the Bush administration. There is a second case of veterans records disappearing, all around the time of the revelation that the federal government has been tapping the phones of private citizens. No further details were immediately available. The laptop was stolen in early May in what appears to have been a routine burglary from a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who had taken the computer home to work on the databases it contained.