THE VA SCANDAL IS OUTRAGEOUS

After hearing the breaking news of the stolen 'VA' files on television yesterday, I got up this morning and went in search of more information, which by the way was impossible to find. What I did find was more scandalous news articles about how lax the VA has been with this vital information in the past.

One of the articles was titled 'Veterans Angered by File Scandal'. I fall in this group of people that may have been jeopardized. Perhaps I should say ' have been' instead of may have been, jeopardized and I must say 'Angered' is an understatement. I think at this point in time words like, disappointed, furious and frightened would be more befitting.

I have always been afraid of identity theft and in the past there have been many things that I won't do for fear of this very thing happening to me, for example there are many times that I have wanted to order something on the 'Net'. If there is not an alternative way to order it like a phone number, it's bye, bye, baby as far as I'm concerned. Even entering an area of the 'Net' that wants some personal information, I will not do, for fear of this very thing. Yet I entrust my government with my most precious possession and they treat it with less care then my credit card company does.

After reading these news articles, I am sickened to find out that they have been lax in the care of these files for years. They have had security checks over the years many times, been told to fix their problems and have done nothing about it. Well then, in that case I'm surprised that this hasn't happened sooner. Should I be grateful? I don't think so, years ago would have actually been better I didn't have as much to lose as I do now.

For God sake has the government not heard of the word 'encrypt', to say the least these files being important enough to ruin a person life should have been encrypted, at least then it would have been a person with some knowledge, some intelligence, a damned good hacker to be able to use the information not just some thief on the street. I am sickened.

To make things even worse the news media have been giving out a number to call for information. I have just found out that it is of no use, you may as will dial the number on your child's toy telephone, because it is my understanding that when calling this number you can not even find out if your name is on the list of said stolen files.

To add insult to injury. This theft happened two weeks ago and they knew about it but didn't tell anyone. Oh gee, what do I do now, thank the government for trying to save me the agony of worrying. Surely that is why they didn't tell us. Or perhaps they were conducting two weeks of group prayer, for the files to miraculously reappear.

Oh 'Thank You' my dear government for saving me this worry, but did you not realize that I could have been checking my credit two weeks ago, instead of rushing around panic stricken today.

Read the news here under opinions: 'ID theft made easy'.

In conclusion let me just mention this one little thing. "The Department of Veterans Affairs does not believe that it is necessary to contact financial institutions or cancel credit cards and bank accounts, unless you detect suspicious activity." Well hear is what I think, frankly it would be a pretty dumb thief to be trying to use them right now. I think if that is what they intend to do, they are probably smart enough to have the patience to wait. I think the time to worry is way down the road, months or a year even, when it won't hit people right away that it is from the VA episode.