Disk With Employee Data Stolen From Levi

A computer hard drive containing personal information about more than 20,000 Levi Strauss employees has been stolen from the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. The disk, about the size of a VHS cassette tape, listed names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and, in some cases, bank account numbers. It was discovered missing last week and employees were notified Friday. Workers affected include those at all 36 of its U.S. manufacturing plants, which employ roughly 22,000 people. Police are investigating the theft. Someone with criminal intent could use such information to illegally access an individual’s financial accounts or to fraudulently obtain credit cards, but the information is written in difficult-to-crack computer code. The company had found no unauthorized use of the data.