In a release dated Feb. 2, Veterans Affairs announced that a Birmingham, Ala., VA Medical Center employee alerted supervisors Jan. 22 that an external hard drive was missing and possibly stolen. The drive served as a backup for the employee’s computer and may have contained personal information on some veterans. The employee stated that some of the data was protected. The VA’s Inspector General was notified Jan. 23, and has begun an investigation, after seizing the employee’s computer for data analysis. So far there is no word how many vets might be affected. Vowed Jim Nicholson, VA secretary, “We intend to get to the bottom of this, and we will take aggressive steps to protect and assist anyone whose information may have been involved.”
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.