SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Personal information about hundreds of thousands of retirees' may have been compromised after two security breaches involving pension funds in California and New York.

In the New York case, a laptop computer containing financial information on as many as 280,000 retired New York City workers disappeared from a restaurant.

In California, a pension fund brochure that was mailed to 445,000 retired state workers last week revealed all or part of each person's Social Security number on the envelope.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System blamed a computer data error for the mailing. Officials declined to say whether anyone was disciplined, but an internal review was started to examine how the fund uses and stores information.

"We're very sorry it happened. It was very inadvertent," CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht said. "We've apologized to each member and given them options to protect their identity."

The brochures were to announce an upcoming election to fill a vacancy on the board of the nation's largest public pension fund. In a letter to retirees about the error, the fund said senior officials would have to sign off on future mailings and staff would get security training.

"While it is unlikely that someone would recognize the series of numbers as being a Social Security number except you, we consider this a serious incident," the letter stated.

In New York, the laptop computer containing the financial information was reported stolen Monday by a consultant to the city Financial Information Services Agency who had taken the computer into a restaurant, mayoral spokesman Jason Post.

He said the city would notify any retirees whose data might be compromised.

Computer thefts and security breaches have surfaced around the country, raising fears that personal data about veterans, corporate employees, retirees and others could be compromised. Congressional auditors said in July that personal information about Americans is lost or stolen from government or private computers almost every day.

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