It seems people are a little careless with company laptops.
According to a study conducted by the Ponemom Institute found that 329 businesses have lost more than 86,000 laptops with a combined value of $2.1 billion. The survey, which was sponsored by Intel, suggested airports and train stations are not the riskiest places for a lost or stolen notebook: 40% of losses happen at "seemingly safe" locations such as homes and hotel rooms. The main reasons for the $2.1 billion loss estimate were not the cost of hardware, but data breach, lost intellectual property, reduced productivity and legal and regulatory charges.
Ponemom says that the chance of workers misplacing their laptops or having them stolen is about 5 to 10% over a timeframe of 3 years, depending on the industry that the company is in. Educational and research institutions reported the most lost or stolen laptops (11%), while the safest laptop owners are in the financial industry.
Intel has an interest in the results of this study, of course, and not just because it can contribute to further chip sales. Intel promotes its Anti-Theft technology, which also ties in with the recent acquisition of McAfee, which will play a significant role in adding security to hardware.
"eBay laptop sales up by 86,000 laptops worth $2.1 Billion"
"eBay laptop sales up by 86,000 laptops worth $2.1 Billion"
I mean iv'e lost a charger to a laptop before but NEVER lost a laptop!
Read the entire article instead of just the headline.
Theft, forgotten in a taxicab, etc..
Some people are just walking accidents. Ask an IT department for a large business sometime. There are usually a few people who you have to work hard to keep them from losing these things.
Hope they used some top-notch encryption and a fail-safe erasure protocol after too many failed access attempts.
Actually most business travelers don't let their laptops out of sight and take them onboard. So it's probably less than 10%. Most losses probably come from car break-ins, home invasions, and even workplace theft (usually the cleaning crew).
the reason for this is 1) sensitive data that is restricted from leaving
the country. not common but it does happen. 2) if the laptop is stolen/lost they don't want more company information then possible to get lost with it. its a major pain in the ass but thems the rules.
Solution: http://anti-theft.intel.com/
I recommend something other than BitLocker though, it's not a cost effective 'in place' upgrade for Windows 7. (It ain't bad, just 'can you really trust TPM?' - think about it...).