Citizens Advice laptop stolen with personal details of 60,000 clients

PERSONAL details of up to 60,000 people have been lost by Citizens Advice, it was revealed last night.

Bank account numbers, National Insurance numbers, names, addresses and dates of birth were on a laptop stolen from a staff member's car in Belfast earlier this week.

The details are of people who have sought advice from the bureau - but it said they were encrypted and the bureau claimed it was unlikely they could be accessed.

Derek Alcorn, chief executive of CAB Northern Ireland, apologised and said he would be writing to all the individuals concerned.

The client records involve people from the Belfast area and date back up to five years.

He said: "I want to apologise to all of those concerned and potentially affected by this incident.

"We can say that the data on the computer is protected by three levels of security including a high level of encryption.

"It is highly unlikely that a criminal will be able to access the data."