A laptop with personal data on hundreds of thousands of Boeing Co. employees was stolen earlier this month, and the aerospace company will notify those potentially affected by the theft in a company e-mail today.
"In the first week of December, a laptop was stolen from an employee's car," Boeing spokeswoman Kelly Danaghy said. "That laptop had files that contained Social Security numbers for about 382,000 past and present employees, and in most cases it also included a home address, phone number and date of birth."
There was no motive to believe that any of the stolen information has been used illegally, she said.
It was uncertain Tuesday whether the data was encrypted. No banking or credit card information was stored in those files, but the company will provide free three-year credit monitoring for staff whose personal information was compromised.
Past employees whose information was stored in the files will be notified of the theft by mail this week, Danaghy said.
Boeing does not want to reveal what city the theft occurred in because the person who took the computer might not realize what he or she has. But Danaghy said the computer contained information about employees at all Boeing plants.
Danaghy declined to disclose what agency is investigating the theft, but she said a law enforcement agency is working closely with Boeing's security staff to recover the computer.
