The University of Calfornia, Berkeley said earlier this week that it had recovered a stolen laptop that contained the social security numbers of over 98,000 students and applicants of the university. However, the school could not say whether or not the information had been compromised.

"UC police note that while a lab analysis could not determine whether the sensitive campus data was ever accessed, nothing in their investigation points to identity theft nor individuals involved in identity theft," the school said in a statement.

"It appears, they said, that the intent was simply to steal and sell a laptop computer."

The laptop was stolen on April 14 and then was sold on an unnamed Internet auction site to a South Carolina man on April 22.

All data on the laptop had been replaced, as the hard drive had been formatted and a new operating system installed. Computer forensics teams said that only residual data remained and it was "virtually impossible" to tell if data had been actually accessed.

"Since the time the laptop theft occurred, campus police have learned of no pattern of identity theft or credit card fraud involving those individuals with names and Social Security numbers on the Graduate Division computer," the school added.

UC Berkeley is not the first school to suffer from data theft of personal information. In March, California State University, Chico, informed students and staff that as many as 59,000 may have had their personal information accessed after a hacker broke into the school's computer systems.