Credit issuer GE Money has announced that a computer tape containing the personal data of 650,000 customers of major retailers such as JC Penney is missing. The tape also contained the Social Security numbers of an additional 150,000 people. The tape went missing from a facility operated by Iron Mountain, a data storage company. It claims it notified GE of the missing tape last October and to its knowledge no one has been a victim of identity theft as a result of the loss.

"We believe this is an unfortunate case of a misplaced tape," Iron Mountain's statement said. "We also understand the tape was created in such a manner to make unauthorized access extremely unlikely and difficult, even for experts with specialized knowledge and technology."

The affect consumers are being notified via letter and those who's SSN's were compromised will be offered free credit monitoring for a year.