SAN FRANCISCO DATA THEFT PROBLEMS DUE TO COMPUTERS STOLEN Growing use of laptops a security risk for customer infoThousands and thousands of consumers' Social Security numbers have gone missing in recent months due to a rash of thefts involving computers and stored data.

So why would Bank of America tell its workers that, beginning in October, they'll be required to carry around bank-owned laptops if they want to access the company's network from remote locations?

That edict is contained in internal memos recently issued to BofA employees, along with a new policy that relatively safe desktop PCs used for working from home will have to be replaced with laptops toted to and from the office.

"The objective is to increase efficiency and lower our costs," said Betty Riess, a bank spokeswoman. "Our goal is to have one PC per associate, operating on one platform."

Benjamin Jun, vice president of San Francisco's Cryptography Research, a security consulting firm, said many companies favor laptops for remote access to their systems. They keep workers mobile and, thanks to uniform security measures, help prevent computer viruses from getting in.

"The other side of that, though, is that when you issue a large number of laptops, a greater percentage will be lost or misused," Jun said. "It's a fact of life."

San Francisco's Wells Fargo learned this the hard way after a laptop containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of thousands of mortgage customers nationwide was stolen in late February.

When a pair of bank employees traveling in the Midwest stopped for snacks at a gas-station convenience store, a car thief made off with their unlocked rental car. The keys had been left in the ignition. The laptop was in the trunk.

A month later, a computer hard drive containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 95,000 people insured by the Alameda Alliance for Health was stolen in Sacramento. The hard drive was being driven to a bank for safekeeping by the chief executive officer of a company called Insurance Benefit Spot Check, which helps process insurance claims.

The data was inside a leather satchel that was left inside the car when Spot Check's CEO stopped for an appointment with his accountant. A thief smashed the car's window and stole the satchel, including the data-rich hard drive

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