#Middlebury #Veterans
A data breach occurred at the Department of Veterans Affairs when thieves attempted to divert medical payment funds at the Financial Services Center away from community health care providers that take care of veterans outside the VA. The minute the techies noticed the breach, they took it offline, of course, and locked it pending a security review.
If that was the whole story, it would eventually be worked out when those providers got replacement payments from the VA. However, while the thieves were roaming around in the computers they also got the personal information of some 46,000 veterans, including Social Security numbers.
As breaches go, this is one of the smaller ones the government has experienced. Remember a few years ago when millions of veterans were compromised? Still, it’s unnerving to know your info is out there.
Those affected by the breach, or a next of kin, will have been notified by now (the thieves also went after the personal info of deceased veterans). The VA is offering credit-monitoring services at no cost. Alerts went out by mail to the affected veterans, along with instructions on how to protect personal info. (If you did not get an alert mail, you were not in the group that was breached.) If you received an alert letter and you have questions or concerns, contact the FSC Customer Help Desk by email at VAFSCVeteransSupport@va.gov.
Unfortunately, in this hotly political climate, false rumors are the order of the day. One political party sent a snarly message to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs claiming that in addition to the 46,000 veterans, another 17,000 providers were affected as well. Not so. Turns out that there were 17,000 total providers who used the computer program, but only 13 were impacted and of those, only six had funds grabbed.
© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.
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