Veterans who are part of the class action suit against the department don’t need to prove they were victims of identity theft as a direct result of the data breach; they only need to show they suffered emotional distress or expenses related to the breach.

News of the settlement comes two days after the revelation that a used MP3 player bought by a New Zealand man contained the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and other personal information of military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The MP3 player also contains military briefings and lists of equipment sent to those countries.

Despite the department’s claim that no identity theft resulted from the 2006 data breach, there has been anecdotal evidence to the contrary. For instance, Earl Laurie enrolled in LifeLock after being notified by the U.S. Navy and the Department of Veterans Affairs that his information was on the stolen laptop that held the records. Shortly thereafter Laurie was notified that someone tried twice to open new credit card accounts using his information; their attempts failed because of LifeLock’s service.

Laurie was so impressed with the identity theft protection he received that he now endorses LifeLock.

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College employees were upgrading a server October 3 when they discovered that an unauthorized user had accessed the data and remotely installed software. The hacker was able to access patients’ names, addresses, birthdates and Social Security numbers.

Even if this data breach had been the only such incident in UF’s recent history, the number of people affected makes it bad news. But, because there have been 15 others over the past year, it raises questions about how seriously the university takes privacy protection.

Data breaches at universities account for less than 5 percent of all data breaches, according to Rodney Petersen, security task force coordinator for a non-profit that promotes information technology in higher education.

He said it’s typical for a large university to have three to five incidents in the last couple years. “Having incidents in the double digits is probably larger than usual.”

“They aren’t doing enough to protect their clients’ information,” said George Baldacchino. His information was part of a data breach that occurred in 2005 when a laptop was stolen that contained records of 3,800 patients at Shands at the University of Florida.

Baldacchino says he’ll never go again to any of the clinics operated by the university. “Life is stressful enough.”

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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.