A recently published study entitled "Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops" conducted by Dell and the Ponemon Institute brought to light the fact that about 12,000 laptops are lost in airports on a weekly basis, in America alone. The study gathered information from 106 major airports in the US. Out of all those missing laptops about 70% are recovered while the remaining 30% are never found.

It is worth mentioning that the actual figure is believed to be much higher because numerous incidents are never reported. It is of equal importance to mention that the laptops contain users' private data as well as confidential business information.

The simple truth of the matter is that only few companies ever disclose information regarding laptop theft. One of the main reasons this happens is because the employees do not report laptop theft. They are simply too embarrassed to admit that they managed to "misplace" the laptop the company gave them. The study showed that only 1% of the 800 business travelers included in the study admit to losing a laptop.

Larry Ponemon, founder and chairman of Ponemon, had this to comment: "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. 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."

In order to protect the information stored on the laptop, just in case it gets lost, Dell has launched its ProSupport Mobility Services. If a computer gets lost, regardless if it is stolen or simply stored somewhere so well that no one can remember where, Dell software ensures the company data stays protected.

Why do so many laptops get lost? The study has interviewed 800 travelers and it seems that they are either carrying too much luggage with them and they forget about the laptop, or they are in such a rush to board the airplane that they leave the laptop behind. The Dell Ponemon study shows that the most likely places to lose a laptop are the checkpoints and the boarding gate. The worst thing is that about 65% of all business travelers do not use some sort of security solution (such as encryption) to protect the data on the laptop and 45% do not even back it up so that it doesn't get accidentally erased.