Stolen laptop puts 16,000 council staff at risk

More than 16,000 council workers in the Midlands have been warned their sensitive personal data may have been compromised after a laptop was stolen from one of their colleagues.

And bosses at Worcestershire County Council are facing criticism for reportedly taking more than a week to inform those staff affected of the possible breach and the related risk of identity theft.

A spokeswoman for the council told silicon.com the laptop contained data on more than 16,000 council workers and was stolen during a robbery. She wouldn't confirm when the robbery took place, however, but said this non-disclosure was a deliberate attempt not to alert the laptop thief to the potentially sensitive data they may now have in their possession.

She said: "Obviously laptops get stolen every day in the UK and we don't want to tell people when this particular laptop was stolen in case that alerts the thief," expressing concern the robber could abuse the data on the laptop if they accessed it.

However, she said the laptop has "some layers of security on it" to protect the data it stores.

Although experts believe there is no such thing as a 100 per cent impenetrable laptop, sound basic security would normally be enough to ward off a curious opportunist, rather than motivated data thief.

The spokeswoman confirmed all staff affected have now been contacted in writing and a hotline number has been set up to handle enquiries. Over the past five days around 370 concerned staff have either emailed or phoned the hotline for advice, said the spokeswoman.