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.