VA aims to encrypt laptops within a month

The Veterans Affairs Department will begin encrypting all agency computers on Friday, more than three months after the theft of an unencrypted laptop computer containing the personal information of 26.5 million people from an employee's home.

On Aug. 11, the VA awarded a $3.7 million contract to Systems Made Simple Inc. in Syracuse, N.Y., to install encryption programs on all department laptop computers, followed by all desktop computers. Portable media, such as flash drives and CDs, also will be included.

The agency expects to have all laptops encrypted within four weeks.

"I have promised America's veterans that I intend to make VA information security a model of data security and this expedited encryption program is a major step in that direction," Nicholson said.

The encryption program will use products from data security company GuardianEdge in San Francisco and Trust Digital, a McLean, Va., mobile security company.

GuardianEdge said the project will involve encrypting about 300,000 computers and mobile devices.

Ron Fishbeck, CEO of Systems Made Simple, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, said his company has a long history of working with VA on strategic planning and systems implementations.

Last week, VA announced that it was accepting an offer from ID Analytics to provide free data breach analysis services to make sure that the information on the stolen computer equipment, which has since been recovered, was not compromised. The FBI and officials from VA's inspector general office have said they are highly confident that the files on the computer were safe.

The company will provide VA with an initial analysis by scanning across multiple industries to detect patterns of misuse of the data and will then follow-up with assessments on a quarterly basis. The ID Analytics' system looks at more than 3 billion identity elements provided by credit card, wireless telecommunications and instant lending companies.