Cleveland VA accidentally deletes 464K data files

6/11/2013

CLEVELAND — U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio is asking the Department of Veterans Affairs for more information about its Cleveland office accidentally deleting 464,000 electronic data files related to home loans.

In a Monday letter to the secretary of veteran affairs, the Republican lawmaker said the records included loans, grants and applications.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports a VA statement said no personal information was jeopardized when the files were deleted May 24. The agency blamed human error and said staff would be retrained to help prevent the error from occurring again.

The VA said some files were recoverable, and the online application program was restored within a few days.

Portman wants information about when the department and applicants were told about the error and how they’ll be affected.