Veteran's Secretary Says He's 'Outraged'

[Liberal Dose]

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Under intense bipartisan fire from Capitol Hill, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Wednesday he was outraged by his agency's decision to keep the theft of veterans' personal data quiet for two weeks.

Nicholson first learned of the theft late on May 16 and immediately notified the FBI, according to an government official familiar with the timing, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

The department made the theft public on May 22, nearly three weeks after the May 3 burglary at a VA data analyst's home.

"I will not tolerate inaction and poor judgment when it comes to protecting our veterans," Nicholson said in a statement to The Associated Press.

More at link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/vets26_million_ids;

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. He's shocked, SHOCKED!, he says

If he weren't a part of the Junta, I'd be inclined to believe his outrage. But he is, so I'm not.

[Liberal Dose]

3. AND he knows how to prioritize. Hmmm...

"Upon notification, my first priority was to take all actions necessary to protect veterans from harm."

Exactly WHAT were his immediate actions upon finding out the data was <ahem> "stolen"? I wanna know what these alleged "actions" were!
:grr:

[grytpype]

2. In other news, Jim Nicholson is Veterans Affairs Secretary.

[MindPilot]

4. These shitbags KNEW they had inadequate data security.

In a written briefing to Congress, acting VA inspector general Jon Wooditch said the agency did not appear to do enough to prevent the breach.

In every year since 2001, the office warned that access controls were a "material weakness" in the department's security of information, Wooditch wrote. The briefing paper cited vulnerabilities related to the operating system, passwords, and a lack of strong detection alerts. :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[Liberal Dose]

6. Any minute now I expect someone to come out with the statement,

"There was no way anyone could have predicted the data could be stolen."

x(

[Lars39]

5. 19 days is closer to 3 weeks than 2 weeks.

He's trying to downplay the time-frame.

[Liberal Dose]

7. That's the um, whaddyacallit - fuzzy math. n/t

:hi:

[JPZenger]

9. Could have been encrypted

I realize that the guy who took the data home was not supposed to do it. But in the future, couldn't government agencies and banks make sure all similar data has some basic encryption? I'm not suggesting something that would be impossible to break, but instead some type of password system that would make it hard for the average identify thief to read the data.

[Liberal Dose]

11. I was under the impression that they automatically encrypted data.

That is, until this. :shrug:

[gratuitous]

8. Doesn't Nicholson know that by talking about this . . .

Doesn't Nicholson know that by talking about this, he's (1) giving comfort to the terrorists; (2) tipping off the thief or thieves that the government knows something was stolen; (3) betraying vital secrets of national security; and (4) killing Tinker Bell.

[Liberal Dose]

10. Chanting: I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies, I do believe..

I draw the line at harm coming to Tink! :7

[Debau2005]

12. People please...

I am trying to eat lunch, if I choke on my salad my cube mates may not resucitate me this time!

Tinker Bell...good one....:rofl:

[steely]

13. Translation: He talk all steps to cover his ass.

[Rex]

14. "Outraged! Just shocked I tell you!"

"We only held the news for 19 days, the NYT held domestic spying news for ONE YEAR!" "Give us a break already!" "At least we're not the NSA!"

[Roland99]

15. I'm outraged at his outrage! Why is he so angry?

[Rose Siding]

16. Funny Leahy: "It all adds up to a heckuva bad job for America's vets"

On Wednesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy said President Bush should call Nicholson "into the woodshed" because of the theft of personal data involving some 26.5 million veterans. Citing past budget problems at the VA, Leahy said Nicholson should consider resigning.

"It all adds up to a heckuva bad job for America's veterans," said Leahy, D-Vt. "The President should call Secretary Nicholson into the woodshed for a serious shake-up in how the VA is run."