The Veterans Affairs Medical Clinic in Portland, OR posted personal information of at least 1,600 patients on a public website. Included in the exposed information was the Social Security numbers of approximately 700 patients.
Information of patients from other VA clinics was also posted, but the total number of patients affected isn’t known, according to the Portland hospital’s spokesman Mike McAleer.
The data breach occurred when the VA was posting financial records to a federal government website that allows anyone to access details of government contracts and related expenses. An expense related to lodgings for clinic patients in local hotels was the only information that was supposed to be posted.
Since the massive leak of 26 million veterans’ personal information in 2006, Congress requires that the VA give free credit monitoring and fraud alerts to anyone affected by their data breaches. At the same time, Congress also required that the VA take steps to better protect personal information, and that all VA employees undergo training in proper handling of personal information.
The Portland clinic began notifying patients last week of the data breach and the protection the VA would provide in its aftermath.
The problem with the services the VA provides after their lax handling of their constituents information, is that it doesn’t work. Fraud alerts are the first line of defense in protecting someone’s credit, but credit monitoring only lets them know after a thief has already begun using it.
LifeLock provides each of their 1.5 million members with comprehensive identity theft protection that helps to ensure the security of their credit and their name. Learn more about how they can help to protect you before or after your personal or financial information is revealed in a data breach. Visit LifeLock.com and use the Life Lock promotion code Defense to get a discount on service.
