Stolen VA laptop recovered

Via CNN:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has recovered the stolen laptop computer containing sensitive data for up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced Thursday.

Nicholson also said there have been no reports of identity theft since the May 3 burglary at the Maryland home of an agency employee.

"There is reason to be optimistic," he told reporters just before the start of another in a series of hearings Congress has had on one of the worst breaches of information security.

"It's a very positive note in this very tragic incident," Nicholson said.

Nicholson offered no immediate details on how the laptop was recovered.

This is indeed very good news. Assuming the database wasn't copied, the chances that veterans will suffer identity theft have diminished greatly.

As I said last night, there are still questions to be answered as to whether this was a single individual disobeying rules or an institutional failure. The hearings should certainly continue in order to discover how best to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.