■ United States
Veterans' data compromised
A burglar who stole a laptop from the house of a government employee snared the personal electronic data of up to 26.5 million military veterans, including their Social Security numbers and birth dates, officials said on Monday. Social Security numbers, which identify individuals' government pension accounts and are widely used as personal identifiers in private-sector business transactions, can be easily used in identity fraud and other financial crimes, especially when combined with birth dates and addresses. The laptop was at the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, who had carried it out without authorization, the agency said.
■ Brazil
Lawyers grilled over leak
Lawmakers are expected to grill two attorneys for a notorious gang about whether their clients received advance notice of a police crackdown before launching coordinated attacks leading to 172 deaths across Brazil's biggest city and state. The lawyers were to be forced to testify yesterday before Congress in Brasilia about accusations they purchased a tape of police telling lawmakers of their plans to isolate incarcerated gang members just before the attacks began May 12. Some congressmen who were at the supposedly secret legislative committee session on May 10 denied the leaked tape sparked the unprecedented week of violence launched by the First Capital Command gang.
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