A desktop computer containing the sensitive data of about 5,000 current and former employees at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Calif. was stolen from a data management group in Fullerton.

What type of personal information? Names, Social Security numbers and birth dates.

What was the response? The hospital plans to offer victims one year of identity-theft protection services.

Details:Police on March 7 arrested Todd Irvine, 43,  of La Habra on charges he stole the computer. The machine was in the possession of Systematic Automation, a vendor responsible for sending information to health insurance providers on behalf of hospital workers. The computer contained data on another 35,000 people, working at 18 companies, but authorities do not believe the information was the target of the theft.

Source: Whittier Daily News, “Identity breach affects hospital,” March 26.