Undisclosed number of Verizon employees at risk of identity theft
A theft of two laptop computers has put a "significant number" of Verizon Communications' employees at risk of having their identities stolen, the company said Wednesday.
The computers were pilfered from a company facility and may contain important personal information, such as Social Security numbers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Verizon executives told employees in a March 1 letter that the theft appears to be "a random criminal act" and that the laptops were password-protected, according to the Journal.
Verizon executives told the Journal that both current and former employees could be at risk. Verizon is offering affected workers free use of a credit monitoring service to help them watch out for identity theft.
Other companies that have suffered similar data losses are Bank of America and ChoicePoint.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET.
