The names, post office box numbers, forwarding addresses, units of assignment and work phone numbers of all 6,000 post office box holders from the U.S. Military Base in Mildenhall, England are currently lost in cyberspace.

All of the information, which originally was stored on a password protected military database, was transferred earlier this year to an airman’s personal laptop to make working from home a bit more convenient.

Unfortunately, this convenience was costly. As reported Saturday in Stars and Stripes, British authorities are still looking for the stolen computer containing this personal information.

The post office employee to whom the laptop belongs reported the theft. The laptop was stolen directly from his residence, in nearby Brandon, in early January.

The article relates that, “The Air Force is not participating in the investigation but posted several notices at the mail center urging people to follow Federal Trade Commission guidelines for identification theft, which include placing a fraud alert on credit information. A mass e-mail with the same notification and advice also was circulated around the base.”

The notice stated that the probability that the information even be accessed is pretty low. There was a disclaimer, however, that they could not guarantee that foul play would not occur.

Air Force officials assured the military that the information was protected not only by a password, but also by a complex encryption system.

Mildenhall officials have not reported any cases of identity theft related to the stolen laptop. However, in the past year, there has been a surge in identity theft among military members stationed in England. According to the article, “150 cases totaling $70,000 were reported in July alone.”

While Mildenhall-based military may have a decreased risk of identity theft, it should still be noted that an overwhelming amount of identity theft cases can be traced back to laptop theft and general oversight of laptop security.

Should you also be concerned about the safety of your laptop, I urge you to look into MyLaptopGPS. It can save you a lot of time and money, return your laptop to you, retrieve sensitive information from the stolen laptop, and even delete that information from the laptop remotely after it has been returned to its rightful owner–you.

Just give it some thought. Because if you thought military security was strong, imagine where that puts your personal computer.