The Department of Veterans Affairs is notifying thousands of veterans about a disclosure of personal information in the service network that includes most of Florida.
The department said the disclosure was caused by a former Orlando VA health care system employee.
The VA said the employee emailed documents to their own personal account on their last day of work but there’s no evidence the information went farther than that.
The documents contained names, addresses, phone numbers and email accounts. Some also had dates of birth and complete or partial Social Security numbers.
The Tampa office for the region that includes most of Florida, South Georgia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands announced the incident this week. It was discovered on Jan. 16.
On March 1, the department sent letters to 9,076 veterans and notified the next of kin of 565 others who are deceased, and 209 veterans are being offered no-cost credit monitoring for a year.
The VA is urging veterans who receive care at a Veterans Integrated Services Network 8 (VISN 8) medical center to call if they have questions or concerns about the breach. They can call the toll-free number 1-833-486-3075 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
