May 25, 2006 -- US-CERT continues to receive reports of data theft that targets online users and Federal government web sites. Recently, Veteran Affairs data was stolen from the home computer system of a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee. This data contained large amounts of personally identifiable information, such as, names, social security numbers, and dates of birth. Over 26 million veterans and some spouses are affected by this incident.
The VA is continuing to investigate this issue and working to inform affected parties of this incident so that the appropriate steps can be taken to protect against this information being misused.
If you believe you may be affected by this incident or would like additional information, please refer to the Veterans Affairs web site.
Additionally, US-CERT recommends that users take the following measures to protect against data theft:
* Encrypt sensitive data on your local hard drive and back up mediums.
* Attend Security Awareness training to gain a better understanding of your organization's policies and procedures for handling sensitive data.
* Restrict access to sensitive data from Internet connected systems.
Source: US-CERT
Source:
Wired News
