A laptop at Stanford University containing personnel records, including Social Security numbers, of 72,000 current and former employees, was reported missing from the university last week. The university joins the growing ranks of schools–more than 70 in 2007 alone–that have lost sensitive data.

Feelings among Stanford officials is that the laptop was probably stolen for is value and that the perpetrator was unaware of the files on the computer’s hard drive. The stolen computer does not contain driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers or other financial information, the university said.

The San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center which tracks theft of personal data, encourages institutions to keep such data on password-protected files and to encrypt personal information. The university would not say whether the information on the laptop was encrypted. However, there was no indication the data had been accessed.

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