Survey: nearly 3 of 10 laptop thefts are at the office

- Gary Thayer, Editor

October 4, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- The current epidemic of stolen notebook computers (laptops) and resulting data breaches is most prevalent in an unexpected place -- the office.

According to a new survey by CREDANT Technologies, the office is the most common place laptops are stolen, making up for 29 percent of all laptop disappearances reported by survey respondents world-wide. Some respondents noted that their stolen office laptops were super-glued to their desks, physically locked into place and even secured with a lock and cable.

Even more disturbing, 87 percent of respondents report having email on their stolen laptops, and 67 percent report they had other business information stored as well. Moreover, 90 percent report that their stolen laptop contained sensitive and confidential corporate data that was not intended for public view.

The CREDANT laptop survey also found that nearly three quarters of the stolen laptops did not meet regulatory compliance requirements for data encryption, mainly the stringent privacy regulations dictated by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), California Senate Bill 1386 and other regulations. Twenty-one percent of respondents report they used no security measures or encryption of any kind on their stolen laptops. Only 10 percent of respondents report using a full-disk encryption security product.

The CREDANT laptop survey was conducted in June 2005, with emails sent to nearly seventeen thousand Global 2000 professionals. Two hundred and eighty three respondents from around the world qualified for and completed all the questions, making up the final outcome of the survey.

By no coincidence, CREDANT offers security software that encrypts data stored on laptops, tablet PCs, and external storage devices. The software, called CREDANT Mobile Guardian, also automatically detects whenever other PDAs or smartphones attempt to access a corporate network, ensuring that data is protected from intruders.

For quick information on CREDANT, see the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

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