"Saying 'We're sorry' is hardly comforting to veterans and their families," said Rowan in the statement. "The VA has been criticized for years about lax information security and that includes criticism from the VA's own Inspector General. The VA still hasn't properly secured all the personal information under its control. We've just seen the largest known unauthorized disclosure of Social Security numbers in history. We hope this lawsuit will help Secretary Nicholson correct the known vulnerabilities in how the VA protects private information. If the VA can't solve the problem, maybe the courts can help."

The lawsuit seeks:

- A declaratory judgment that the VA's loss of these records violated and continues to violate both the Privacy and Administrative Procedure Acts.

- A court order that the VA disclose the exact nature of its compromised records system and to individually inform each veteran of every record it maintains on him or her.

- An injunction preventing the VA from altering any data storage system and prohibiting any further use of the data until a court-appointed panel of experts determines how best to implement safeguards to prevent any further breaches.