VA says data on 2 million active-duty troops stolen

The Veterans Affairs Department announced Tuesday that personal information on more than 2 million active-duty military service members may have been included in the data stolen from an employee's home last month.

VA officials said Tuesday as the department shared information with the Defense Department, they discovered that data on up to 1.1 million active-duty members, 430,000 National Guard members, and 645,000 military reservists was among the information potentially compromised by the theft.

Over the weekend, the VA reported that the data that went missing involved 10,000 to 20,000 National Guard and Reserve personnel, and 25,000 to 30,000 active-duty Navy personnel.

At the time, the department said there was no evidence that full-time active-duty personnel from other branches of the military were affected.

Active-duty members may be included in the compromised VA database because the individuals were issued notifications from the Pentagon, known as a DD-214s, or separation from active service notices, once they completed their first enlistment.

This paperwork triggers an automatic notification to VA that the individual is no longer on active duty, but in these cases the people re-enlisted. VA believes the information could still be in the agency's data files.

"VA remains committed to providing updates on this incident as new information is learned," said Secretary James Nicholson.

A coalition of veteran groups filed suit against the federal government Tuesday, alleging their privacy rights were violated as a result of the data theft, the Associated Press reported. The class-action suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, demands the agency disclose who was affected by the theft, seeks $1,000 for each person and accuses the agency of being too slow in discovering and disclosing the theft.