Earlier in September 2020, the VA was the target of a hack that compromised the personal information of roughly 46,000 Veterans within the VA system. Specifically, the most concerning information that has been put at risk is the affected Veterans’ Social Security Numbers. At this time the VA does not know who is responsible for the hack and has referred to them only as “unauthorized users.”
An interesting note in this story is the aim of the hack itself. Specifically, the hackers were not trying to divert money from Veterans, but instead were diverting funds that were being sent to VA medical providers for services performed on Veterans. The Financial Services Center first noticed the breach and alerted VA. The specific application that was accessed by the unauthorized users has been taken off-line and will remain as such during the VA’s investigation on the matter.
For those Veterans affected by this breach, the VA will contact you directly by mail with instructions on how to protect their personal information, as well as instructions on how to access credit monitoring that VA has agreed to provide to the affected Veterans at no cost. VA is currently not releasing any further information until the conclusion of its investigation into the matter.
If you have questions about how your personal information may have been affected by this breach or questions about VA benefits in general please contact our office at (251) 343-1111. Gardberg and Kemmerly are proud to service Veterans across the United States from our home office in Mobile, Alabama.
