http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/3-2-0&fp=448...68788&cid=1106955982


This si the second time in a month that a huge amount of personal data has been inadvertantly stolen. The first big one this month is the VA info, now Hotels.com has given up personal info?

I think that everyone that had unauthorized access to this information and their supervisors should be held accountable. I see someone was fired and another placed on leave. WOW!!!! That's what I call punishment!

I have already contacted Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion and placed my name on the "List" of possible credit fraud ... just in case.

We need to find a way to protect ourselves better. Maybe the Army as a whole needs to implent a plan. Although they may already have done such a plan and I've never heard of it. Still though, I see a lot of SSNs every day and it would be really easy for someone in a personnel position to abuse those SSNs. I've seen entire lists of personnel's SSNs that aren't even part of my Battalion and sometimes even our post. There's definitely something that needs to be done about all this. The best thing for now is to identify such problems at your own level and fix them as is appropriate.

I have always had a huge problem with my college and the Army using SSN's as ID numbers. My university has since moved to using completely arbitrary ID numbers, although too late for my sake, and I think the military needs to implement a system of arbitrary ID numbers now. We're always told to keep our SSN's safe and secret but that is kind of impossible since it needs to written and printed all over any paperwork we submit.

FYI I found the following links helpful:

http://www.firstgov.gov/veteransinfo.shtml
http://www.equifax.com/siteAssets/productPromos/veteran/veteran_breach.htm suggest options 1 and 2 on this page since they're free anyways.