Security

How Often Do Your Lose Your Laptop?

39 percent of employees have already lost a laptop or another device, survey reveals

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

7th of December 2007, 10:09 GMT

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This would be a great idea to avoid losing your laptop

The computer security is not all about antiviruses, antispyware technologies or any other software solution being installed on the system. It also refers to users' negligence

that often boosts the attacks, data loss or any other leakage concerning private information. According to a research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, 39 percent of the employees included in the questionnaire said they had lost their PDA, their mobile phone or their laptop, all the devices containing private details. What's more impressive is that 51 percent of the IT professionals said they had already copied confidential information onto a USB memory stick, which made the data loss a serious problem in case the device got stolen.

"Data breaches remain the leading cause of financial losses in business, with over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies falling victims to data leakage, and this is not going to change without improvements in the enforcement of data security policies," said Vimal Vaidya, found and chief executive officer at RedCannon, the company that sponsored the survey.

"This study clearly indicates key data management practices that have a serious impact on data security and regulatory compliance, and highlights ways organizations can bolster policy enforcement and reduce the risks of potential data loss," it is added in a press release published on the official website of the Ponemom Institute.

In addition, no less than 45 percent of the employees said they had access web-based email accounts from the workplace computers, whereas the same percentage admitted they downloaded personal software on the workstation. Disabling the security features on the work computers was a popular activity for 17 percent of the respondents, while no less than 46 percent of the employees said they had shared passwords with other colleagues.

"Privacy and data protection are meaningless if they do not address the full spectrum of threats and if they are not enforced, and our research points to an urgent need to address this pervasive vulnerability in corporate data security programs," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemom Institute.

TAGS:

usb | laptop | loss | security

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User opinions:

Comment #1 by: yogi on 08 Dec 2007, 21:31 GMT	reply to this comment
having insurance is always important on the finance side.. but what about the data? so along with the insurace it would be great if we can some theft recovery softwares.. . i found a few softwares for this at www.dexmobile.com .. just thought i can share but they have softwares for mobiles only...

Comment #2 by: Pauline on 25 May 2008, 06:38 GMT	reply to this comment
How about anti-theft software like bak2u to retrieve back the stolen laptop?

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