NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – If I borrow something of yours, then lose it or realize it's been stolen from me because I wasn't vigilant about protecting it, you'd probably expect me to do everything I could to make amends.

But when it comes to the loss or theft of one's personal information by the federal government, your employer or any other institution that requires you to turn over valuable data like your Social Security number, you're given lists of things you should do – who to call, what to monitor, etc.

The latest example: the federal government's efforts to inform 26.5 million veterans what they can do to protect themselves from identity theft now that their personal information was stolen from the home of a Veterans Administration data analyst.

The government is looking at what it will cost to assist veterans in monitoring their accounts and keep them apprised of what they'll need to know. During questioning from members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the estimated cost of doing so could be "way north of $100 million" and may be as high as $500 million.

But that's a bill we should pay – we owe our veterans and their families at least that.

In the meantime, some businesses are offering some breaks.

The credit bureau Equifax, for instance, is offering veterans a 50 percent discount on its credit monitoring services through June 30. And some fraud protection services – like Intersection and MyPublicInfo – also are offering free service or discounts.

Keep in mind, though, none of these services necessarily prevent identity theft. What they can do is alert you that it may be taking place, in which case you'll be given another list of things to do to rectify the situation.

Note, too, that while experts consider Intersection to be the most reputable firm of its kind, and MyPublicInfo, a new company, is also considered legitimate, there is no consumer group monitoring businesses that offer identity-theft protection.

"You should be especially careful with ID theft services since many of them are scams," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in an e-mail.

Rotenberg and Jay Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, suggest that the government ask the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – to do one or both of the following:

• Let veterans place a 7-year fraud alert on their accounts with just a letter from the institution where there was a security breach, rather than a police report of identity theft as currently required. Consumers can always call just one of the credit bureaus and ask that a free, 90-day alert be placed on their credit report at all three bureaus. A fraud alert tells companies that they should call you to verify your identity whenever they check your credit report with the intention of opening an account in your name or making any changes to an existing one. Putting an alert on your credit reports might delay the granting of instant credit, but it should not lower your credit score or prevent you from getting a loan.
• Let veterans freeze their credit reports if they choose. A freeze means that no one can view your report unless you give them a password to access it. Currently only 12 states require the bureaus to allow for freezes. As with an alert, a freeze can slow the granting of credit.

When I asked spokesmen from all three bureaus whether there was anything preventing them from implementing these measures, they said they would have to check and get back to me.

For all the finger-wagging and "how could you's" evident in lawmakers' questioning of Nicholson Thursday, I couldn't help but think it would be nice if they sustained the same outrage over the careless way consumer and taxpayer data are treated by businesses and the government.

A number of data theft prevention bills have been introduced over the years, but it still remains the case, for instance, that businesses can demand your Social Security number to check your credit.

They also are, in many instances, free to sell the information you give them.

Not that many government records are under lock and key, either. They, too, are for sale. The federal government is both client and supplier to data superaggregators like ChoicePoint. You remember ChoicePoint - last year it exposed nearly 145,000 people to identity theft by mistakenly selling their information to crooks posing as business clients. That same year, it was awarded a $20 million government contract to provide the IRS with information on the public.

Speaking of the IRS, under IRS regulations tax-return preparers are permitted to sell taxpayer information to any third parties so long as they get your consent.

Add to that the underground gray/black market in which identity thieves trade in your good name, and you've got yourself a robust multibillion-dollar industry.

There's no proof so far that the theft of the veterans' personal data was a targeted heist. And realistically, even if it were, there may be safety in numbers - a vet may have as little as a 1 in 26 million chance of his or her identity being ripped off.

With the lax laws in place pertaining to the personal data trade, I guess we're all being asked to take comfort in odds.

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Your identity ... for sale

Jeanne Sahadi writes about personal finance for CNNMoney.com. For comments on this column or suggestions for future ones, please e-mail her at everydaymoney@cnnmoney.com.