Va. Tech panel obtains Cho records
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A state panel investigating the Virginia Tech shootings obtained a tape recording and transcripts of gunman Seung-Hui Cho's mental health hearing by court order Tuesday.
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By Tom Holden, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.  Dec. 15--RICHMOND -- Gov. Timothy M.
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The report released yesterday by the Virginia Tech Review Panel is one of four investigations into the April 16 shootings. Here's the status of the others:
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(InfoWorld) - Authorities have charged a 21 year-old Unisys Corp. subcontractor with stealing a desktop computer with billing information on as many as 38,000 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical patients. Khalil Abdulla-Raheem, of Washington, D.C., was charged Wednesday with theft of government property. He is the employee of an unnamed company that "provides temporary labor to Unisys," according to a statement released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department's Office of Inspector General. The computer wasÂ stolen in late July from Unisys's Reston, Virginia, offices. It contained records on about 16,000 living patients who had received treatment at VA medical centers in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as information on another 2,000 who are deceased. Data on an additional 20,000 patients may have been stored on the computer, according to the VA. The VA said that these records may have contained Social Security numbers, addresses, and insurance information. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now analyzing the computer to determine whether this information has been compromised, but investigators do not believe that Abdulla-Raheem was after the VA data. This is the second ofÂ two major data breaches at the VA this year. In May, personal information on about 26.5 million veterans was compromised when a laptop and external hard drive were stolen from a VA analyst's home. Authorities haveÂ arrested two teenagers in connection with that theft and the FBI has concluded that the sensitive information was untouched. Still, the data in question was unencrypted in both of these incidents, and the VA, which has regularly scored failing grades in the Federal Government's annual computer security scorecard, has been blasted for its handling of the matter. The department's Inspector General published a report in July citingÂ policy failures and a lack of supervision in the May incident, and called for the VA to adopt a clear policy for safeguarding sensitive data. With data notification laws pushing data breaches into the public eye, PC encryption has become a priority for many IT departments. In fact, laptop encryption will top a list of the ten most important security trends for 2007, due to be released on October 1 by the SANS Institute, a computer security training organization. "Every major organization is moving forward to buy and deploy encryption products," said SANS Director of Research Alan Paller, in an e-mail note sent Thursday. "The reason is that top management is adamant about not facing personal embarrassment because of lost sensitive data." Abdulla-Raheem was released on bail Wednesday and is due back in federal court for a preliminary hearing on October 3. Unisys has offered a US$50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the PC. So far, nobody has come forward to claim the money, according to Lisa Meyer, a Unisys spokeswoman. Unisys had not encrypted the data on the stolen PC because this was not required by the VA, but the company is now taking a second look at this policy, Meyer said. "An event like this causes us to reexamine everything we're doing," she said. Â
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Personal information about 6,000 current and former University of Virginia faculty members may have been stolen by hackers.
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By Lee Graves, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.  Jun. 6--State officials and employees expressed delight Monday with a new regional office in Charles City County, but no one seemed more tickled than Inger Rice.
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Robert Howard told a U.S. Senate committee last week that the VA is in the process of installing encryption software on all its laptops during confirmation hearings on his appointment to assistant secretary for information and technology of the agency.
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To: TECHNOLOGY EDITORS  Contact: Jerry MacLean, Executive Director, +1-434-817-6303, jerrymaclean@vptc.org, or Tracey Linkous, Vice Chair & Communications Officer, +1-434-242-5886, tlinkous@diffusionpharma.com, both of VPTC   CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan.
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Sensors will be used to relay data to medical files.
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A stolen laptop computer containing  sensitive information on more than 26 million U.S. military  veterans and service members has been recovered and a  preliminary review indicated no data was taken, the FBI and  Veterans Affairs Department said on Thursday.
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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has made progress on data security since last May's laptop theft, but still needs to address a variety of shortcomings, government auditors say.
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In one week, much has changed for Virginia and Virginia Tech. The latest proof comes as the Cavaliers top the Hokies, 65-60.
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Slow-moving efforts to improve Virginia's mental health system, including changing the way mentally ill people are monitored and when they can be committed, have accelerated in the two months since Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech and could be in place as soon as next year.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs began notifying 1.8 million veterans and doctors Monday that their personal and business information could be on a portable hard drive that has been missing from an Alabama hospital for nearly three weeks.
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A portable hard drive that may contain the personal information of up to 48,000 veterans may have been stolen, the Department of Veterans Affairs and a lawmaker said Friday.
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Relatives of student gunman who killed 32 on Virginia Tech campus turned over his mental health records to a gubernatorial panel investigating the shootings.
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Gov. Timothy M. Kaine met Saturday for two hours with relatives of those killed at Virginia Tech and pledged they would have access to a panel investigating the shootings, but stopped short of giving them a seat on the panel. The relatives have demanded representation on an eight-member panel Kaine has appointed to investigate the April 16 shootings that left 33 dead.