What happened?/ A computer with the personal information of employees was stolen from a company office.

What types of personal information? The date contained sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, for 33,000 employees, according to a CNBC report.

What was the response, Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest brokerage firm, has notified affected employees.

Details: The firm said no client information was compromised.

Merrill has reported the theft to law enforcement.

Quote: “We have no reason to believe at this point that anyone has gotten access to the protected information,” the firm said in a statement. “While we think the possibility of someone gaining access to the data is small, we have notified affected employees and offered free credit monitoring to them.”

Source: Reuters, Aug. 7, “Merrill Lynch reports computer theft” and CNBC.com, Aug. 7, “CNBC’s Gasparino: Merrill Lynch ID theft may affect 33,000 employees”