Identity Theft Expert Speaker; Robert Siciliano www.IDTheftSecurity.com VA agrees to pay $20 million to veterans in 2006 data breach

Government is paying up regarding a stolen laptop from 2 years ago. A laptop computer was stolen from the home of a Veterans Administration employee and had 26.5 million names addresses and social security numbers of veterans and their families. Thats almost 10% of the population on one $1000.00 computer with a 30 gb hard drive.

The laptop was later recovered, however the damage was done.

The cost of the theft is much more than $20 million. Do the math. For this breach its less than a buck per name lost, not taking into account all the money spent investigating the loss.

As laptops get faster smaller and cheaper this will continue to happen. Why? Because those who are responsible for the devices do not follow whatever policies may or may not be in place to secure them and/or encrypt the data on them.

Below is a youtube vid of an appearance on the Today Show where another major corporation was lax in their security and compromised a couple hundred thousand records.