Missing BP laptop contained information for 13,000 claimants, report says

The Associated Press reported that a BP employee has lost a laptop containing the personal information of about 13,000 people who have filed claims as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The report quotes BP spokesman Curtis Thomas, who on Monday mailed out letters to the claimants whose information was on the laptop to warn them of what happened.

The laptop contained a spreadsheet containing names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and mailing addresses, the AP reported.

BP has offered to pay for credit monitoring for affected claimants and they have notified law enforcement about the missing laptop.

The laptop was password protected but the information contained within it was not encrypted, the report states.

The information belongs to people who filed claims with BP before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility took over the claims process in August 2010.

The laptop went missing on March 1 but BP declined to tell the public before "doing our due diligence and investigating," Thomas is quoted as saying.