As reported here, thieves broke into the home of a VA employee, stealing the laptop he took home from work, that contained the personal information of at least 26.5 million veterans who were discharged from the military after 1975.
Lovely, just lovely ... that group above includes me.
An investigation into the theft is being conducted by the FBI, and by VA investigators, and the folks at the Federal Trade Commission have alerted the credit bureaus to be alert to any type of fraud activity relating to this theft. There is also a hotline you can call if you feel that you have been a victim of identity theft - 1-800-FED-INFO - plus an information page for veterans regarding this situation, that you can find here.
If you are a veteran of the US Military who was discharged after 1975, pay particular attention to your financial statements - credit card, bank, investment statements, etc. - and check that information web page often. So far, the investigators don't think the thieves know exactly what they got when they stole the laptop, but someone will find out that will know what's on that laptop, and they will use it.
Let's hope that the FBI and the VA investigators recover this soon.
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