The $301 million Piedmont Advantage Credit Union notified its 46,000 members ithas lost a laptop that contained member data.

“On Jan. 31, 2015, we discovered that there was a credit unionowned laptop that could not be located,” wrote Judy Tharp, CEO of the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based cooperative inan undated latter to members. “While incidents like this are notuncommon, it is a first occurrence for us. Piedmont Advantage hasengaged law enforcement and hired a computer forensic firm toinvestigate the matter. The laptop included password protectedauthentication designed to prevent unauthorized access, and at thistime to the best of our knowledge, no data on the laptop has beenaccessed.”

Tharp went on to say that members' names, addresses, dates ofbirth, account numbers and social security numbers may have been onthe computer. Piedmont Advantage will also offer one year ofcomplimentary credit monitoring and “restoration” services for twoyears if it becomes clear member information has fallen into thehands of hackers.