According to the Associated Press, a thief recently stole a laptop from the University of California at Berkeley, which contains personal information about nearly 100,000 alumni, graduate students and past applicants. Information contained on the laptop includes names and Social Security numbers dating back to 1976.

Recently there were several similar security breaches reported involving loss of a large amount of personal data, including ChoicePoint Inc., a consumer data firm duped into distributing personal information about 145,000 people; Lexis-Nexis, where computer hackers obtained access to the personal information of 32,000 people; and Chico State University, where a computer hacking job exposed 59,000 people to potential identity theft.