Washington, D.C ? The Navy has begun a criminal investigation after Social Security numbers and other personal data for 28,000 sailors and family members were found on a civilian Web site.

The Navy said Friday the information was in five documents and included people’s names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Navy spokesman Lt. Justin Cole would not identify the Web site or its owner but said the information had been removed. He would not provide any details about how the information ended up on the site.

The breach regarding the Navy comes amid a rash of government computer data thefts, including one at the Agriculture Department earlier this week in which a hacker may have obtained data on 26,000 Washington-area employees and contractors.