About 26,000 staff at Marks and Spencer risk being the victims of identity theft after a laptop was stolen containing their personal details.

The laptop was stolen from a printing company and contained the employees’ names, salary details, addresses, national insurance numbers, dates of birth and phone numbers.

The details were part of a database the firm keeps on staff who are part of the Marks and Spencer final salary pension scheme.

The company is offering those affected by the identity theft threat free credit checks to help monitor the situation.

The printing firm had the database to allow it to write to employees about changes in the pension scheme.

Marks and Spencer said the laptop was stolen last month and was password protected. It is not believed the data was encrypted however. The company said it wrote to those affected two days after the theft.

(source).