Laptops pose massive security risk

This year, the sale of laptops and notebooks outnumbered desktops, and the trend is set to continue and prices plummet, performance increases and mobility takes off.

Credant Technologies, a data encryption technology developer based in Dallas, conducted a poll among 16,700 proffessionals in Fortune 2000 firms and discovered that laptops are most commonly stolen from the office, accounting for 29 percent of all notebook disappearances globally. Other findings of the study included:

• 90% of those who reported a stolen laptop said that it contained "sensitive and confidential" corporate data;
• 75% of those who reported stolen laptops said they did not have encryption on the hard drive, even though such measures are mandated by federal laws, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and state legislation in California;
• About 10% of respondents said they used some kind of security to protect their laptop.

When you apply these survey results to everyday corporate life, you realize that millions of dollars and the future of these companies are at stake, and even a single security breach has the potential to send stock prices plummeting.

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CATEGORIES: 1mobility, 1laptops, 1encryption, 1survey, 1users, 1stats