Tech & Biz

12,000 Laptop Losses Per Week at US Airports

by Jordan Yerman | July 4, 2008 at 06:05 am

364 views | 4 Recommendations | 4 comments

It strikes me as odd that someone would walk away from a security checkpoint without their laptop- would you even bring the thing with you if it weren't an integral part of the reason for travel? So, yeah, I can understand the embarrassment of losing company property, but the data is far more valuable, and far more dangerous out in the wild.

Companies owe it to themselves and their clients to be more careful, and to be more honest when they lose their machines.

According to a study of 106 major U.S. airports and 800 business travelers published by the Ponemon Institute and Dell Computer, about 12,000 laptops are lost in airports each week. Only 30 percent of travelers ever recover the lost devices. Nearly half of the travelers say their laptops contain customer data or confidential business information.

The report offers a very different view from sources that collect breach disclosure information, such as Attrition.org, where only a few companies disclose laptop thefts each week. Many employees are embarrassed to report the loss of a laptop, and many companies don't report them, experts say.

"It’s staggering to learn that up to 600,000 laptops are lost in U.S. airports annually, many containing sensitive information that companies must account for," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "IT departments must re-evaluate the steps they’re taking to protect mobile professionals, the laptops they carry, and company data stored on mobile devices."

Sixty-five percent of the business travelers admit that they do not take steps to protect the confidential information contained on their laptops when traveling on business, according to the study. Forty-two percent say they don't back up their data before going on a trip. Fewer than 20 percent of respondents said they have whole disk encryption or file encryption on their machines.
Interestingly, only 1 percent of the respondents admitted personally losing a laptop computer. However, 84 percent say they know someone who has lost a laptop while traveling on business.