Coca-Cola tells thousands of employees of security breach

Coca-Cola said Friday personal information for about 74,000 U.S. and Canadian employees, former workers and “external third parties” may have been compromised after company laptops were stolen last year.

The beverage giant said the Social Security numbers for 18,000 employees and former workers were on the stolen laptops. Other personal information, primarily driver’s licenses, affected another 56,000 employees and former staffers.

The Atlanta-based beverage giant told employees in an email Friday that it had no indication that the information was “misused” but that it was offering identity theft protection for one year to all affected.

Coca-Cola said it learned about the theft in December when it recovered the computers from a former employee whose was responsible for maintaining or disposing of company equipment, including computers.