[Infowarrior] - Veterans Affairs to protect data on laptops

Mon Aug 14 22:59:48 EDT 2006

Veterans Affairs to protect data on laptops

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/Veterans+Affairs+to+protect+data+on+laptops/2100-1029_3-
6105477.html

Story last modified Mon Aug 14 14:54:16 PDT 2006

One week after news that another computer from the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs had gone missing, the agency announced plans to beef up
safeguards on all of its machines.

In the next week, the agency plans to begin installing data encryption
software on its laptop and desktop machines, VA Secretary R. James Nicholson
said Monday. Data on portable media such as flash drives and CDs will also
be protected.

"A system-wide encryption program will be a tremendous step forward in
improving the safety and security of sensitive veteran information,"
Nicholson said in a statement.

The planned upgrade is the agency's latest effort to step up vigilance over
its computer systems, after the high-profile theft of a laptop and an
external hard drive that housed sensitive information on more than 26
million veterans and active military personnel. The equipment was stolen
from the Maryland home of a Veterans Affairs Department employee in early
May and was ultimately recovered in June--but not before an uproar ensued
among politicians and other watchdogs.

Police arrested two teenagers in connection with the incident last week.
Days later, the agency said it was investigating reports of a new
theft--this time of a desktop machine from the Reston, Va., offices of
Unisys, a subcontractor hired to assist with insurance collections for
Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers in Pennsylvania. The agency
estimated that the computer contained information on about 38,000
veterans--2,000 of whom were deceased.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' laptop computers will be the first to
receive the new encryption software. They will be given products made by
GuardianEdge and Trust Digital, which market themselves as mobile security
specialists. The agency said it awarded a $3.7 million contract last week to
SMS, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based company owned by a "service-disabled" veteran,
to carry out the upgrade.

Final testing of the products is currently under way, and installation is
set to begin on Aug. 18. The agency hopes to have 100 percent of its laptops
covered within four weeks of that date, with desktop machines to follow.