UTV News reports:
An urgent investigation has been launched into what material was taken from the corporate human resources offices over the weekend.
All the machines were password-protected, marked and serial numbers recorded.
Detectives have been called in.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance and Personnel said: “In view of the nature of corporate HR’s business, namely strategic personnel issues for the Northern Ireland civil service, the DFP is currently conducting an urgent investigation into what information was stored on these laptops and what risk, if any, may be posed to civil servants’ personal data.