WASHINGTON STARBUCKS ANNOUNCES COMPUTERS MISSING FROM HEADQUARTERS http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/291044_starbucksid03ww.html

Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee retailer, said Friday that laptops containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 60,000 current and former employees are missing.

The company said it has been unable to find four out-of-use laptops at its Seattle headquarters, a nine-floor building in the Sodo area. Two of those computers had personal information on employees hired prior to Dec. 31, 2003, said Valerie O'Neil, Starbucks spokeswoman. She did not know what information was on the other two computers.

O'Neil said the company first realized the computers were missing Sept. 6, when an employee "went to retrieve them in the normal course of business."

She said Starbucks is in the process of notifying affected employees, and it waited nearly two months to disclose the problem while a thorough internal investigation was completed to try to find thecomputers.

"There is no indication we have that these laptops are with someone who intends to use the information," O'Neil said.

The missing computers at Starbucks follows a string of other high-profile entities that also lost sensitive information. In June, a laptop containing fingerprints and Social Security numbers of Internal Revenue Service employees was lost. Last year, Time Warner Inc. said data on 600,000 current and former employees stored oncomputer backup tapes was lost, while a thief stole a Boeing computer that had personal information of 161,000 current and former workers.

O'Neil said the company is offering each of the affected employees a free credit protection service through Equifax Inc. O'Neil did not know how much that would cost Starbucks.

Ironically, Equifax in June said a company laptop containing its employee names and Social Security numbers was stolen.

Of the 60,000 employees affected, 10,000 are still employed by the company, O'Neil said.

She said Starbucks will notify employees through letters, and the company has created a Web site (starbuckspartnerinformation.com) and a phone line (800-453-1048) to provide additional information.