Wells Fargo Home Mortgage of Des Moines, Ia began notifying customers May 5 that their financial information may have been exposed as a result of the loss or theft of a computer.

The computer was lost in shipment by an overnight carrier and is presumed stolen. Police investigations to this point focus on theft of the equipment and do not believe the thieves were targeting the data.

Although the contents of the computer were protected by multiple layers of security, Wells Fargo is offering free credit monitoring services to all of the clients to guard against possible fraudulent use of the data. Offering of credit monitoring services is a growing trend among major firms experiencing data theft.

This incident also follows the trend that most thefts of financial and health data is incidental to equipment theft. For healthcare providers, this emphasizes the need for basic physical security protection to reduce the risk of computer theft.