NEW YORK PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL ADVICES EMPLOYEES ABOUT PERSONAL DATA LOSS AS A RESULT OF RECENT COMPUTER THEFT AT TOWERS PERRIN Garden State Business Briefs:

Personal information about an unspecified number of current and former Prudential Financial employees was on a handful of laptop computers stolen from a consulting firm's New York offices, Prudential told employees last week.

Towers Perrin, which provides actuarial services for Prudential's pension program, said the information included employees' names and Social Security numbers. Prudential, based in Newark, said a percentage of its 23,000 domestic workers, some former employees and a small number of retirees are affected.

Spokesman Bob DeFillippo declined to provide more specifics.

The five laptops were stolen Nov. 27 by a Towers Perrin employee, according to a complaint filed by the Manhattan District At torney. Prudential wasn't notified until Jan. 3 at the request of authorities, who arrested the Towers Perrin employee Dec. 28.

DeFillippo said Prudential didn't get a complete list of affected employees until Jan. 9 and a formal letter to those workers was sent last week.

Published reports have identi fied Altria and United Technologies as two other businesses whose employees were affected by the theft. Towers Perrin has offered to pay for one year of credit monitoring to help protect against identity theft.

-- Greg Saitz