General Electric Co. said on Tuesday that a company laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 50,000 current and former employees was stolen in early September.
The laptop, issued to a GE official who was authorized to have the data, was stolen from a locked hotel room, the company said.
The Connecticut-based company began mailing letters earlier this week to the people whose names and Social Security numbers were on the laptop to notify them of the breach and to offer a year's free access to a credit-monitoring service, GE spokesman Russell Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson declined to give further details such as where and when the theft took place or whether the company official was still with General Electric.
Nonetheless he said evidence suggested the thief was after the stolen computer, rather than the data on it, and said there was no sign that the information had been used improperly.
The loss of the data, including employees' names and social security numbers, raises the specter that the information could be used in identity theft schemes, in which thieves apply for credit cards and other services under stolen names.
The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department came under fire in the spring after a laptop containing data on 26 million military veterans and service members was stolen from a staffer's home.
In the past year, major U.S. companies that have reported the loss of computer equipment containing data on employees and customers have included aircraft maker Boeing Co., financial services company Ameriprise Financial Inc. and a U.S. mortgage firm owned by Dutch bank ABN AMRO Holding NV
