The DOT had acknowledged last week that a laptop with the names, addresses, birthdates and Social Security numbers of about 133,000 Florida residents was stolen in late July from a government vehicle being used by an agent of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Miami.

The first laptop was stolen on April 24, from a conference room in a hotel in Orlando, said Clayton Boyce, a spokesman for the OIG.

Boyce said that laptop was being used by a Transportation Department special agent from the Miami office who was there to present an anti-fraud conference. The agent told police she had left the laptop in a locked room but it was missing when she returned 45 minutes later, according to another OIG spokesman.

The laptop contained fraud case files involving government contracts and grants, according to the spokesman.

"We continue to take further steps to control security of the laptops and the sensitive information contained on them," Boyce said. "If there's sensitive information on employee laptops that they don't need, it's being removed -- and if they do need it then it's being encrypted."