IG Opfer put in motion a criminal investigation on May 12, 2006 within the VA and the employee was interviewed on May 15, 2006. The local police had been investigating the theft since May 3, 2006 but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was not apprised until May 17, 2006, the day after Nicholson was advised. Nicholson then briefed U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Deborah Platt Majoras, along with co-chairs of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force. And lastly, the U.S. Congress was advised on May 22, 2006 when the public announcement was made. Now the details of this timeline may seem like more information than one need know, however it is indicative of the dysfunction of information oversight and security controls including the chain of command which exists within the culture of the VA and its 235,000 employees. Since the initial speculation of missing information, it has been learned that additional identifications of numerous other veterans as well as active-duty personnel is also missing. The data includes personnel discharged prior to 1975 who put in claims to the VA for any number of services, disabled veterans discharged prior to 1975 who receive healthcare through the VA, over 6,700 records of World War II veterans who participated in chemical testing programs for mustard gas and biological weaponry, along with diagnostic codes pertaining to an unidentified number of disabled veterans.

The active-duty personnel information considered missing as of June 6, 2006 now includes more than 1 million National Guard and Army Reserve members, which includes at least 55,000 serving at least their second active-duty tours in Iraq and at least 30,000 active-duty Navy personnel who completed their first enlistment terms prior to 1991. But now it is confirmed that as many as 1.1 million active-duty troops from all of the armed forces are at risk of identity theft. Since the theft findings, the data analyst has been fired with full benefits and severance pay, Deputy Assistant Secretary McLendon resigned from his post, and Acting Assistant Secretary Duffy, acting head of the Division for Policy Planning and Preparedness was put on administrative leave. Secretary Nicholson, serving as Secretary of the VA since 2005, has also hired Rick Romley as his new advisor for information security who will assist Nicholson with reforming the VA’s policies and procedures on information security for a minimum period of three months. Romley is a former Maricopa County, AZ attorney, Vietnam Veteran and high profile former Republican National Party Chairman in the state of Arizona.

The long history of security flaws within the VA does not come as news to many within the Government Accountability Office (GAO), or within the VA’s Office of the Inspector General. And for that reason, it makes it even more difficult for lawmakers to fathom. “The chronology that you gave us is absolutely baffling. It’s just inconceivable that there were such long delays.” Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government al Affairs, stated such during IG Opfer’s May 25th testimony before the committee.