GRAND FORKS (AP) - A laptop computer containing personal and financial information belonging to more than 84,000 University of North Dakota alumni, donors and others was stolen last month from the vehicle of a software vendor retained by the UND Alumni Association.

Tim O'Keefe, the association's executive vice president, said there is "minimal chance" that the laptop's security measures can be breached. He said the security technology "is absolutely the best you can buy."

The private information, including credit card and Social Security numbers, is protected by a data encryption system and other security controls, the association said. O'Keefe said Tuesday that there has been no evidence that the information in the stolen laptop has been used.

The association is not identifying the vendor, other than to say it is from out of state, or saying where the theft occurred. Doing so might alert the thief that "they have something more valuable than they thought," O'Keefe said.

The vendor will make its online credit monitoring service available at no cost to affected people, O'Keefe said. A personal activation code will be mailed to each person for whom the association has contact information, along with a detailed explanation of what happened.

Ten days passed between the time the theft was reported to the association and the association's announcement on Tuesday. O'Keefe said the theft was reported to the association late on a Friday, and that officials spent the following week making sure with the help of a third-party investigator that no breach of the security measures protecting the data had occurred or was likely to occur.