BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana State University says a laptop computer stolen from a university employee may contain information on approximately 5,500 people, including some students, former students and faculty.

The university says in a Friday news release that it is mailing letters to the people involved to inform them of the possibility that personal information is on the stolen computer. It's offering those affected a free one-year membership in an identity theft protection service.

The university has contacted authorities and hired a forensic firm to analyze data that may be on the laptop.

There is concern that the computer may have names, dates of birth, social security, driver's license numbers and, in a "very small" number of cases, credit card numbers. LSU says there is no indication the password-protected information has been accessed.

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