18th November, 2009

Personal details of more than 14,000 voters have been taken as part of an opportunistic theft from the offices of a local authority in the UK.

The details were stored on a laptop computer which was stolen from the offices of St. Albans City & District Council. The information held on the computer contained names, addresses, dates of birth, signatures and copies of postal vote application forms.

According the the council, the data held on the machine was protected by a two layer security mechanism, but there was a 'slight risk' that it could be accessed and extracted.

Councillor Julian Daly, Conservative group leader at the council and one of those whose details were on the missing laptop, said it was "troubling" that someone was able to walk off with it.

Counciller Daly said: "That's all the information you need to set up a bank account. It's classic identity theft territory. That is, assuming they can get at the data. It is troubling that the data was on a portable machine and it was accessible for someone to walk off with it."

The council is writing to all of those affected, warning them to be vigilant. The Authority is also liaising with the police and its IT services supplier, Northgate Solutions.