Anheuser work force affected by laptop theft

Anheuser-Busch says personal information on roughly 3,000 New Hampshire residents, including current and former employees and their families, was on laptops that were stolen from a company office in Missouri during an early June burglary.

The New Hampshire residents are among roughly 90,000 people in at least five states whose data was on the computers.

A July 21 letter to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office, written “in accordance with your state’s law requiring notification . . . in cases of data security breaches,” says the laptops were stolen from the Sunset Hills, Mo., office, between the evening of June 6 and the morning of June 9. Laptops were also stolen from two other businesses in the same office building.

The laptops contained data including Social Security numbers, names, addresses and dates of birth for about 2,250 New Hampshire residents, according to the letter.

They also contained information about 750 New Hampshire residents who received services from the Employee Assistance Program, which helps employees cope with personal problems such as substance abuse and financial trouble. Included in that information were case notes, assessments and treatment plans.

The stolen computers were encrypted and password protected, the letter said. The company says there is no evidence the theft has led to fraudulent use of credit or identity theft.

Anheuser-Busch employs more than 500 at its Merrimack brewery.

Anheuser-Busch is sending a letter to the nearly 90,000 people across the United States, whose personal information was stored on the laptops.

Those affected are being offered a year of free credit monitoring by credit agency Equifax if they sign up by Oct. 31. The service includes identity theft insurance and email notification of credit changes.

Anyone who needs to enroll is asked to visit www.myservices.Equifax.com/silver.

Other options include placing a fraud alert on personal credit files and setting a security freeze, an extreme measure that prevents anyone from accessing a credit file unless the person instructs a credit bureau to allow it.

Residents were affected in at least five states, including New Hampshire, Florida, Virginia, Missouri and Texas.