Gonzales: "no reason to believe ... thieves understand... (stolen data)

[ProSense]

'It's like nobody is safe'

Vets fret over stolen data

BY DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Ex-Naval officer Palestrina Lewis says it's "frightening" to think that criminals could have access to her personal data, and that of 26 million other veterans.

The electronic data file, stolen two weeks ago from the home of a midlevel Veterans Affairs employee, lists their addresses, Social Security numbers and birth dates.

"It's really scary," said Lewis, 50, of Baychester, the Bronx, after she left Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center on E. 23rd St. yesterday. "It's frightening. We've been talking about it inside. ... If someone steals your identity, that ruins you. It could take years to get your credit back to normal. It's like nobody's safe."

Snip...

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters yesterday there was "no reason to believe ... that the thieves understand what kind of information that they have. ... We just don't know."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/420406p-354948c.html

"no reason to believe ... that the thieves understand... information that they have

[notadmblnd]

1. lol.. Well let's not assume the worst Bertie...

after all... the fact that they stole is no reason to believe that they're not honest theives now.. is there?

[CrispyQ]

2. I'm sure they won't understand a social security number,

& all the doors that opens.

:sarcasm:

[plusfiftyfive]

3. No reason to assume also............

That Alberto G has any idea whatsoever what the privacy rights of all American citizens or the personal rights torture victims should be! He's just another liar, another Bush defender, apologist for all the criminal activity of this administration, and he should be out of his job, IMO, if he thinks that there is no danger from these stolen Soc Sec records.

[NJ_Lib]

4. No, the theives are stupid and so is the public for...

... allowing him to say something as ridiculous as that...

[gratuitous]

5. Welcome back to the Bush administration Kingdom of Magic

Where thieves don't understand what they steal, terrorists forget that their phones might be tapped, and other fallacies that a four-year-old would find intellectually insulting.

[windy252]

9. That sums it up perfectly.

Can I steal your post for a sig line? I especially like that last part.

[gratuitous]

10. Steal away

File off the serial numbers and call it your own.

[yellowcanine]

6. Well they may not have known at first - but unless they are dead they know

now.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

7. Yes, thieves don't watch TV. They spend all their time reading Dostoevsky.

[NoPasaran]

8. Very comforting

"Nothing to worry about" coming from a regime that couldn’t anticipate that the New Orleans levees could be breached… or that a briefing entitled “Bin Laden determined to strike in US” might be worth reading.

[Jim__]

11. Whether or not they understood before Alberto ...

... they understand now - since it's been blasted all over the media.

[Jacobin]

12. And of course they could NEVER sell it to someone who

could use it for identity theft, so stop worrying

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. The thieves specifically stole this computer equiptment

The laptop, an external hard drive, and CD's that were near them.

I'm sure they have no idea what they would do with a hard drive...:sarcasm:

The only reason thieves would take a hard drive is because they know what to look for on it. In this case, they hit jackpot: not just the passwords and info of the computer's owner, but 26 million versions of same. The idea that they don't know what's on it is ridiculous.

PS: I worked as a credit card fraud investigator for a while. The thieves know. Trust me.