A-B's data loss affects more than 190,000 people

The number of people nationwide affected by the theft of laptops with personal information about current and former employees of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. has grown to more than 190,000.

About 45,000 people in Virginia have been affected, an increase from previous estimates of 2,250, said J. Martin Tucker, a spokesman for the attorney general's office on Tuesday.

In all, people in at least six states have been affected.

Anheuser-Busch has declined to say how many people were involved or in how many states, so it's still not clear how widespread the loss was. But offices for attorneys general in half a dozen states have confirmed that either they or their residents were notified of the thefts. The states involved are: Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia, Missouri, Texas and California.

In Florida, nearly 87,500 current and former employees were affected, and more than 3,000 people involved in employee assistance programs, either as recipients or providers, according to a letter sent by the St. Louis-based brewer to the state's attorney general.

The state of California said that nearly 55,000 of its residents were affected.

And about 2,250 people in New Hampshire are also affected.

The missing data, stolen in June, included Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and other information, according to the Florida letter, which was given to The Associated Press by the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Anheuser-Busch has said that the theft occurred in one of its office buildings in the St. Louis area and the data was encrypted and password protected.

There has been no evidence that the data was used in any identity theft crime, Anheuser-Busch has said.

The people affected are being offered one year of free credit monitoring service.