About 32,000 Canadian farmers are on the alert after learning a laptop containing their financial information has been stolen.

The laptop was stolen when a programmer working for the Canadian Canola Growers Association took the machine off-site for routine maintenance. CCGA general manager Rick White described the theft as a classic "smash and grab."

The laptop has the bank account numbers and social insurance numbers of farmers who applied for Agriculture Canada's advance payments program, which is administered by the CCGA on behalf of the federal government.

The federal department has sent letters out to all farmers affected by the theft.

"We treat this very seriously," White said. "This is an unfortunate incident, a very low-risk one."

While farmers should report any suspicious financial transactions, the strict security measures being used on the laptop reduce the chances of information being misused, White said.

"There was a very strong password protection on it, [and] there was a biometric fingerprint reader on it," he said. "That would prohibit anyone other than the user or the person with the password to access the data on the laptop."

The Canadian Canola Growers Association represents six provincial grower organizations in Canada, from Ontario across the Prairies to B.C.