May 22, 2006
Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202) 224-9093

(Washington, DC) U.S. Senator Larry Craig is urging veterans and their spouses to carefully monitor their financial and other personal information in light of the theft of millions of electronic records of veterans.

"Today I learned that a VA employee downloaded data regarding up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses. After taking that data home, which was in violation of VA policy, the information was reportedly stolen from the government researcher's home.

"The FBI is involved in the investigation and the VA employee has been placed on administrative leave. As law enforcement officials do their jobs, I encourage veterans to actively monitor their financial and personal information. This could be a planned breach or it could be a simple burglary in which information was stolen and the thief doesn't know what he has," Craig said.

"When the dust settles, the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs will consider holding a hearing on this situation to see what steps should have been taken to prevent this from happening, as well as what legislation may be needed to make sure that this doesn't happen again."

VA has set up a manned call center that veterans may call to get information about this situation and learn more about consumer identity protections. That toll free number is 1-800-FED INFO (333-4636).

The call center will be open beginning today, and will operate from 8 am to 9 pm (EDT), Monday-Saturday as long as it is needed. The call center will be able to handle up to 20,000 calls per hour (260,000 calls per day).

Additional information is available at http://www.firstgov.gov

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