Details of 125,000 Staffordshire University applicants on stolen laptop

The information, including names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, offer decisions, ethnicity codes and gender details, comes from applications dating back to 2006.

The laptop was taken on October 13 and the university has now apologised to students but only informed them of the incident yesterday.

The university has notified all those who were included in the data file to inform them of the breach and apologise, stressing this was an exceptional incident and the laptop was password protected.

Jeremy Lefroy, MP for Stafford, called for lessons to be learned.

He said: "It is a relief that the laptop was password protected but it should not have been left in a car.

"They can be so easy to get into and if it was on display then we all know how dangerous that can be.

"This is a warning for every organisation who has control over such data to bear in mind.

"This kind of thing has been in the news a few years but seemed to have died down. Maybe it is a case of people becoming a bit relaxed.

"It makes you realise how much information can be stored on small, portable devices that can be relatively easy to take.

"We all work from laptops and tablets now and maybe don't treat them with the same level of caution we should."

Dr Rob Boast, associate dean of Staffordshire University, said in an email to people affected that the theft has been reported to police and the Information Commissioner's Office, while 'a technical review of security, further training and a planned internal audit will be undertaken'.

Staff have also been reminded of their obligation to protect personal data.

Mr Lefroy said he was pleased to see that Staffordshire University had begun to address the problem.

He said: "The university has taken their own action and I am glad to see they are taking it seriously, as they should.

"I would say it may be a case of needing to look at who is allowed to carry this information but they will have their own ideas."

Some of the people who had their details stolen took to Twitter to share their feelings.

Julia Conopo tweeted: "Just received an email saying a Staffordshire University laptop with my details has been stolen. What the hell?"

Antony Brown, who applied to the University three years ago, said: "So I just got an email from Staffordshire University saying my personal details were on a laptop that has been stolen.

"Awesome, thanks guys."