Businesses Lost 86,000 Laptops Worth $2.1 billion
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.
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joytech22 Wait how do you lose a laptop?Reply
I mean iv'e lost a charger to a laptop before but NEVER lost a laptop! -
agnickolov At $24.4K a pop and considering the average laptop price is probably under $1K, we are looking at something like 25 : 1 ratio of data loss vs monetary loss due to the laptop hardware itself, maybe even closer to 30 : 1.Reply
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Simple11 cctchristensenI didn't know laptops were going for $24,000; no wonder they were stolen.Reply
Read the entire article instead of just the headline. -
cctchristensen how about reading the piece instead of just commenting on the headline. They actually explain it quite well.Reply
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mikem_90 joytech22Wait how do you lose a laptop?I mean iv'e lost a charger to a laptop before but NEVER lost a laptop!Reply
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. -
Be0wulf22 Someone will make a joke about apple laptops (pictured) being expensive in 3...2...1...Reply -
f-14 i know an esi laptop that was stolen that had about 5billion worth of information on it as well as government lists and contracts and information about a ton of high profile people's private information on it as well. there's a 2 million dollar reward for information leading to it's recovery and another 5 million for information leading to the arrest of the person who stole it. i would not be surprised if it has landed at the hands of people attached to the wikileaks.Reply -
orionantares f-14i know an esi laptop that was stolen that had about 5billion worth of information on it as well as government lists and contracts and information about a ton of high profile people's private information on it as well. there's a 2 million dollar reward for information leading to it's recovery and another 5 million for information leading to the arrest of the person who stole it. i would not be surprised if it has landed at the hands of people attached to the wikileaks.Reply
Hope they used some top-notch encryption and a fail-safe erasure protocol after too many failed access attempts.