A laptop containing the personal information on 10,000 Home Depot employees was stolen from a regional manager’s car in Massachusetts.

What kind of personal information? Names, addresses and Social Security numbers.

What was the response? Home Depot notified victims in a letter and offered them free credit-monitoring services.

Details: The laptop was password protected, but a Home Depot spokesman would not say whether it was encrypted. The manager did violate policy by leaving a laptop containing personal information in his car. Officials, however, have no reason to believe the machine was targeted for the data it was storing.

Source: CNNMoney.com/Associated Press, Oct. 17, “10,000 employees’ data on stolen laptop.”