Costliest Mistake in History of U.S. Government?
June 7, 2006 — -- Initially, it was believed that 50,000 military personnel were at risk for identity theft. That number has now reached 2.2 million, with members at all levels of the military worrying about their personal data, which went missing after a burglary on May 3 in Maryland .
The burglar walked off with computer disks that contained personal information for nearly every current and former member of the military, leaving everyone from privates to generals angry and scared.
"My wife has done a credit report this morning," said Sgt. David Drafton. "I just got off the phone before I talked to you all to make sure there are no different charges or anything on our credit report that we don't already know about."
"The biggest concern that all of us would have would be loss of financial security ... whether it's medical, financial, personal banking or savings," said Brig Gen. Steve Patton of the U.S. Marine Corps.
The millions of individuals potentially affected will likely want to have regular credit checks to make certain their credit is not being compromised. The typical cost of a credit check is $10.
A veterans group has filed a lawsuit demanding that the government pay 26 million retired and current servicemen $1,000 each, which translates into a cost of $26 billion.
That could make this simple burglary one of the costliest mistakes in the history of the U.S. government.
"It is an example of incompetence at the highest level of the administration," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.
Additional Risks for Pentagon?
While there is yet no indication that the stolen data is being used illegally, security analysts said there is reason to be worried -- the information on the stolen laptop was not encrypted.
"Your average burglar isn't going to be able to do anything with the data that was stolen from the VA, but somebody with a moderate degree of sophistication could take that data, figure out what it was, sell it on the Internet, or just use it themselves for identity fraud, identity theft or even worse things," said Mark Rasch, former chief of the Justice Department's computer crime unit.
And there are national security implications for the Pentagon.
"Foreign governments might be able to obtain this information and use it in ways we don't know to get more information on the U.S. military, to gain some sort of intelligence advantage," said cyber security analyst James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The FBI is investigating the incident and local police have offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the laptop and computer files. Sources told ABC News the FBI has obtained fingerprints from the site of the burglary.
It's a promising lead, but recent crime statistics show nearly 90 percent of burglary cases are never solved.