WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said he was "outraged" that the public was not notified earlier of veterans' personal data being at risk.
"How a single employee was able to remove such sensitive personal information without detection, subjecting it to theft, is deeply troubling and I am outraged that veterans were not notified they were at risk for three full weeks," he said in a statement.
The senator added that "the Secretary of the Veteran's Administration must take immediate action to protect the rights and personal information of the millions of veterans who were victimized by this disturbing security lapse. Additionally, Secretary Nicholson must conduct a thorough investigation to fully explain how this happened. Finally, I intend to ask the Government Accountability Office to conduct a government-wide review of practices to specifically examine whether currently policies may have allowed this type of breach."
On Monday the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that personal data of up to 26.5 million veterans was stolen from the home of a department employee who had taken the information without authorization.
