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One of two laptops reported stolen earlier this month from a state government office contained the names and Social Security numbers of more than 1,300 Maryland Department of the Environment employees, according to a news release from the department.

The employees were employed by MDE from January 2000 through October 2006 and may still be employed by the department.

Police from the Maryland Department of General Services are investigating the Nov. 12 theft of the laptops from a secured state office at 300 W. Preston St. in Baltimore.

There is no evidence that the personal information has been retrieved or misused.

However, in accordance with state law, the Maryland Department of Information Technology is attempting to notify the 1,367 people whose information was on the computer and advising that they put a fraud alert on their credit reporting accounts.

The department is contacting individuals by mail or e-mail, but may not have up-to-date contact information for everyone.

Individuals who are concerned that their information could be on the stolen computer can go to a special Web site at http://doit.maryland.gov/mdealert or contact the DoIT Service Desk at 410-260-7778 or ServiceDesk@doit.state.md.us.

A commercial security utility on the computers is activated when connected to the Internet, deleting data and assisting police in tracking and recovering the computer.

According to the Department of Information Technology's Web site, the department, which owned the computers, is reducing its number of laptops and cutting back on their use to store sensitive information because they are popular targets for theft.

The department also is creating polices for handling sensitive data, including the use of data encryption at secure state facilities and the use of more secure servers and centralized facilities.

The Social Security numbers were used to identify and track attendance and leave balances of MDE employees.