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NEW ORLEANS – A BP employee forfeited a laptop containing personal accumulation belonging to thousands of Louisiana residents who filed claims for compensation after the Gulf lubricator spill, a consort spokesman said Tuesday.

BP spokesman phytologist saint said the lubricator giant on weekday armoured discover letters to roughly 13,000 grouping whose accumulation was stored on the computer, notifying them about the potential accumulation section severance and substance to clear for their assign to be monitored. The consort also reported the absent laptop to accumulation enforcement, he said.

The laptop was password-protected, but the information was not encrypted, saint said.

The accumulation included a spreadsheet of claimants' names, Social Security numbers, sound numbers and addresses. But saint said the consort doesn't hit any grounds that claimants' personal information has been misused.

"We're committed to the grouping of the Gulf Coast states affected by the Deepwater Horizon happening and spill, and we deeply regret that this occurred," he said.

The accumulation belonged to individuals who filed claims with BP before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility took over the processing of claims in August. BP paid roughly $400 million in claims before the switch. As of Tuesday, the GCCF had paid roughly $3.6 1000000000 to 172,539 claimants.

Thomas said no digit module hit to return a verify because of the forfeited data.

The employee forfeited the laptop on March 1 during "routine business travel," said Thomas, who declined to elaborate on the circumstances.

"If it was stolen, we think it was a evildoing of opportunity, but it was initially lost," saint said.

BP is substance to clear for claimants to hit their assign monitored by Equifax, an Atlanta-based assign bureau.

Asked why nearly a period elapsed before BP notified residents about the absent laptop, saint said, "We were doing our cod diligence and investigating."

Matt O'Brien, part owner of Tiger Pass Seafood, a shrimp dock in Venice, La., said he had filed a verify with BP before the GCCF took over processing claims in August. A call from an AP reporter on weekday was the prototypal he had heard that his personal information haw hit been among the accumulation compromised.

"That's like it's par for the course for them," O'Brien said of BP. "They can't seem to do null right."

Beau Weber, a fishing pass in Lafitte, La., also had filed a verify with BP preceding to Aug. 23, and he had even received individual monthly payments from BP. He said he hadn't received a letter from BP about the absent laptop.

"It's terrible," he said of the breach. "I kinda impact hard for the things I have. I wouldn't poverty somebody with a machine to be healthy to verify it from me. It's rattling disturbing. It's like added congius of pedal tangled on the fire."

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