For purposes of this subpart:

Confidentiality means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information.

Data breach means the loss or theft of, or other unauthorized access to, other than an unauthorized access incidental to the scope of employment, data containing sensitive personal information, in electronic or printed form, that results in the potential compromise of the confidentiality or integrity of the data.

Data breach analysis means the process used to determine if a data breach has resulted in the misuse of sensitive personal information.

Fraud resolution services means services to assist an individual in the process of recovering and rehabilitating the credit of the individual after the individual experiences identity theft.

Identity theft has the meaning given such term under section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a).

Identity theft insurance means any insurance policy that pays benefits for costs, including travel costs, notary fees, and postage costs, lost wages, and legal fees and expenses associated with efforts to correct and ameliorate the effects and results of identity theft of the insured individual.

Individual means a single human being who is a citizen of the United States, an alien admitted to permanent residence in the United States, a present or former member of the Armed Forces, or any dependent of a present or former member of the Armed Forces.

Information system means a discrete set of information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information, whether automated or manual.

Integrity means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity.

Logical data access means the ability of a person to translate the data for misuse. This can lead to inappropriate access to lost, stolen or improperly obtained data.

Person means an individual; partnership; corporation; Federal, State, or local government agency; or any other legal entity.

Processed or maintained by VA means created, stored, transmitted, or manipulated by VA personnel or by a person acting on behalf of VA, including a contractor or other organization or any level of subcontractor or other suborganization.

Secretary means the Secretary of Veterans Affairs or designee.

Sensitive personal information, with respect to an individual, means any information about the individual maintained by an agency, including the following:

(1) Education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history.

(2) Information that can be used to distinguish or trace the individual's identity, including name, Social Security number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, or biometric records.

Unauthorized access incidental to the scope of employment means access, in accordance with VA data security and confidentiality policies and practices, that is a by-product or result of a permitted use of the data, that is inadvertent and cannot reasonably be prevented, and that is limited in nature.

VA means the Department of Veterans Affairs.

(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501, 5724, 5727)


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