Lost Laptops and Data Loss Prevention

Various tech news outlets are reporting the findings of a new report, citing that almost 637,000 notebook computers are lost every year in US airports, amounting to 12,000 a week in big and medium-sized airports.

Any one of those laptops could have serious security consequences if it fell into the wrong hands. What is also alarming is the fact that almost half of the owners surveyed stated that their laptops contained confidential information, and given the many high-profile data loss incidents in recent years, people still aren't storing less data on the laptop itself.

Even though the study was sponsored by Dell—which coincidentally has a set of new services designed to track assets—laptop users need to implement data security solutions, such as the free package TrueCrypt, that is comparable to the level of confidentiality of their data. For some, anything less than a full disk encryption may be insufficient. Bottom line, be careful with your laptop.