AUSTRALIA COMPUTER LAPTOP THEFT COSTLY FOR AUSTRALIAN ORGANIZATIONSIDM.net.auLaptop theft is proving costly for Aussie organisations

Jun 27, 2005: The 2005 Australian Computer Crime & Security Survey has revealed that three in five organisations have laptops stolen which contain valuable and confidential information that would damage them if they fell into the wrong hands.

The survey also found that this rate has been relatively stable for the last three years and the average annual financial loss to each organisations because of laptop theft is on the increase from AU$18,000 in 2004, to AU$22,000 this year.

Bruce Tweedie, the CEO of Tomora Technologies, which provides technology that can track a machine over the Internet after it has been stolen, said that laptop theft could have a devastating impact on businesses.

"Laptops are capable of storing huge amounts of proprietary and sensitive data which in turn can create considerable risks if they are stolen.

"Whether it's the corporate warrior who has lost company secrets or the students whose essay has gone missing, we are all faced with the need to protect our laptop data. These figures from the 2005 Australian Computer Crime & Security Survey clearly demonstrate the risks associated with mobile computing."

Tomora Technologies produces software called Computrace, which the company claims can survive various types of post-theft scenarios, enabling it to survive accidental or deliberate attempts to remove or disable it.

In some PC models, apparently, the software agent can also survive full image reloads and hard drive swaps.

Lieutenant Dennis Raucci, an Investigating Officer based in the U.S.A., was very impressed with Computrace when it helped him track down a laptop stolen from Follett Higher Education Group, a contractor of bookstore services based in North America.

"The product itself performed just as one would hope it would, tracking not only IP information and email addresses, but phone numbers, too.

"In addition the staff were very efficient and provided me with a regular flow of information on the stolen computer's location, enabling an easy recovery of an expensive laptop."

The monitoring centre received IP calls from the stolen computer, which were from a DSL modem in Chicago. The police started work on a subpoena for the network, and an email address was captured with a proper name. When the unauthorised user used his dial-up account, it enabled the recovery offices to track his phone number too.

Raucci then drove to his house and recovered the computer.

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