Vets groups sue over data breach

Veterans' groups filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government today, claiming that vets' privacy rights were violated by the theft of 26.5 million social security numbers and other information. This is the second lawsuit file on their behalf, reports The Washington Post.

The lawsuit asks that the VA beef up safeguards to personnel data and would award each person affected by the theft $1,000.

"VA arrogantly compounded its disregard for veterans' privacy rights by recklessly failing to make even the most rudimentary effort to safeguard this trove of the personally identifiable information from unauthorized disclosure," the complaint states.

The VA is working with credit monitoring companies to remedy future problems and has said that no reports of stolen data being used for fraudulent purposes have been filed.

The VA has come under criticism from veterans' groups because it took three weeks to disclose that the burgulery occurred. The VA states that the data analyst whose home was burgled had violated its established procedures by taking the data home without permission. There's no doubt of that assertion.

There is a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to the return of the laptop or media drive taken during the May 3 burglary.