As for the Armstrong incident, a laptop with personal information on about 12,000 current and former U.S. employees of the flooring and ceiling tile maker was stolen recently from a locked car owned by a third-party payroll auditor.

In a letter sent last week to the 12,000 affected workers of the Lancaster, Pa.-based company, F. Nicholas Grasberger III, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said the laptop was stolen from a car owned by an employee of Deloitte & Touche LLP. That firm conducts regular internal audits of Armstrong's corporate policies and procedures.

A police report was filed, but the stolen laptop has not been recovered, Grasberger said in the letter. He did not not specify where or when the theft occurred. "While access to the personal information was password protected, the files were not encrypted, which would have provided a higher level of security," he wrote.

The personal information at risk includes names, home addresses, home phone numbers, employee identification numbers, Social Security numbers and annual salaries and hourly rates of pay, according to the company. Armstrong is "not aware of any unauthorized access to or misuse of this personal information" so far, Grasberger.

Dorothy Brown Smith, a spokeswoman for Armstrong, said the company would have no further comment on the matter.