PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS OUTLINES COMPUTER SECURITY MEASURES VA leader outlines computer security measures:
VA leader outlines computer security measures

Thursday, December 21, 2006
By Joe Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a number of measures to safeguard electronic records containing veterans' personal information, VA Secretary R. James Nicholson said during a visit to Pittsburgh yesterday.

The department was criticized earlier this year after computer data containing information about veterans in the Pittsburgh area and elsewhere disappeared.

Personal information for as many as 26.5 million veterans and military personnel was reportedly taken in a May 3 burglary at the Maryland home of a VA employee. That information, stored on the worker's personal computer equipment, was not encrypted -- that is, inaccessible without being decoded.

In August, VA officials announced that other computer records were missing from the Virginia offices of a subcontractor. The records contained the names, Social Security numbers and other information for as many as 38,000 Pennsylvania veterans, many from the Pittsburgh area, who were treated at the state's VA medical facilities during the past four years.

Mr. Nicholson, who was in town to visit the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, said efforts are under way at the department to encrypt computerized data and to centralize data management.

"We have initiated a major transformation of information technology," he said, noting that the use of personal laptop computers is no longer permitted. Instead, employees are issued VA laptops equipped with encryption systems, he said.

The effort to improve the safeguarding of electronic data is a "major cultural change" at the VA, but it is going well, Mr. Nicholson said.

"We haven't had any big problems, but we continue to have small problems," he said. "We continue to have laptops that get stolen. We continue to have Blackberrys that get lost or stolen."

Such problems are now reported and tracked regularly, and "employees are counseled or reprimanded depending on the severity of the incident," he said, adding that officials plan to "make the VA into the gold standard for data security."

Mr. Nicholson toured a new emergency department at VA Pittsburgh's University Drive division in Oakland yesterday and other areas that are part of a nearly $200 million construction project. He praised the local system's organ transplant program and its efforts to eliminate infections from MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria. Earlier this year, VA Pittsburgh began an effort to help other VA hospital systems fight the infections.

Mr. Nicholson said a decision has not been reached on a successor to Michael Moreland, who is stepping down as VA Pittsburgh's director. Mr. Moreland was named earlier this month to head a network of VA medical centers and clinics throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware and in parts of West Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio and New York.

A search under way for his replacement could take several months, Mr. Nicholson said.

Beginning next week, Dr. Rajiv Jain, VA Pittsburgh's chief of staff, will serve as acting director.