What About the Free Credit Monitoring?: Some members of the House Veterans Affair Committee expressed the belief that having recovered the equipment, the VA is no longer obligated to provide free credit monitoring to any of the more than 26 million veterans and military members affected by the May 3 data theft. VA Secretary James Nicholson said June 29 that he is continuing with the bid process to identify which company would get the work, however he added, “a lot has really changed this morning.” He did say that he believes the VA “ought to definitely go ahead” and employ data exploitation analysis, which he called “relatively inexpensive.” Nicholson wants to see what more the FBI forensic experts can deduce from the stolen equipment and whether they “have a high enough sense of confidence that [the data] has not been used.”
The new defense reconciliation bill includes $7.2 billion for Air Force and Navy aviation accounts, almost half of which will buy more F-15EXs. While electronic warfare, drones, connectivity and airlift all get attention, the F-35 was conspicuously absent from the package, with no explanation given.