Northcliffe Media, owner of the Daily Mail, is the latest company to lose a laptop load of sensitive staff information.

A laptop containing names, addresses, bank accounts and sort codes of Mail and General Trust staff has been stolen, it emerged last week. The company told staff that the laptop was password protected - and so, presumably, not encrypted.

According to the letter from Northcliffe Media sent to staff, and seen by the Reg, staff were advised to contact their bank to warn them of potential problems.

The letter, signed by group finance director M J Hindley, said:

The likelihood is that this theft was carried out in an opportunistic manner by a thief who will not realise that there is any personal data on the laptop and who may just erase what is on the hard disk in order to disguise the fact that the laptop is stolen.

I can assure you that we take security of personal data very seriously and have, since this incident, which was inadvertently caused by a technical issue, already further strengthened procedures.

The company apologised for any inconvenience or annoyance caused by the theft.

The company's PR department said it had been advised to not give out any more information. Which smacks a little bit of stable doors being closed after the fact.®

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