UK REPORT INDICTAES 1 IN 10 LAPTOPS STOLEN Butler Group Blog - Computer Business Review: "1 in 10 Laptops Stolen
Published: 28 Feb 2006

Up to 1 in 10 laptops will be stolen during their lifetime according to one of the Law Enforcement Officers behind the new Web site Juststolen.net, and last week the international accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young was on the wrong end of this statistic. With laptop computers now accounting for around 40% of all computer sales, theft of these expensive devices is now escalating at an alarming rate. "

One of the high-profile thefts (at least two were reported in the same week) took place as the E&Y auditors left their laptops in a conference room while they went for lunch. Even though the door to the room had a locking mechanism, the thieves were still able to gain access and steal four Dell laptop computers valued at US$8,000. While some might find these circumstances quite astonishing, figures suggest that 40% of laptop thefts happen while at work, and so my advice would be to tether your computer to the desk at all times if possible.

In a written answer to the House of Commons on 13 February 2006, the Secretary of State for The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported that 21 laptops had been stolen from DTI buildings over the last 12 months (along with one monitor and eight data projectors). On the same day, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) reported that five laptops had been stolen from buildings occupied by this Department in the last 12 months. And so the reports go on, and on.

If I had the time (and the inclination), then I'm sure I could produce a very scary statistic relating to IT security within Central Government, but this would be missing the point. All companies, both large and small, suffer from computer theft; however, with only a 5% chance of recovery according to FBI figures, the impact of these losses are likely to be felt much further than the cost of equipment replacement. Even with a good backup policy in place for laptop computers, I estimate that the average user will lose around 3-4 days of productivity over the course of a couple of weeks following the theft. This could equate to around 100 man-days per year in lost productivity for a company employing 1,000 information workers - no small figure.

Along with lost productivity and equipment replacement costs, senior management should also take into account the information security implications of these thefts. With around 50% of organisations reporting laptop/mobile theft in 2005 (CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey), then chances are, these organisations will also have lost sensitive business information too - a problem that is much more difficult top put a price tag on.

Microsoft has at last recognised that the theft or loss of corporate intellectual property is an increasing concern for many of its customers, and so Windows Vista will see the introduction of even more technologies to protect data stored on desktop and laptop computers. Even though the Windows operating system has provided data encryption facilities for several years, management of this technology has presented something of a challenge. With Vista, however, Microsoft is addressing some of these issues, but customers will only benefit from these if the computer possesses a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip (currently available on some Fujitsu products).

I believe that the time has come for a concerted effort by the computer industry to adopt a unified approach to the marking and security
of IT equipment (much like the motor vehicle industry), and to also introduce alongside this a central database for the registration of corporate and consumer computer equipment that law enforcement organisations can utilise when equipment is recovered. While I do not expect this initiative would eradicate computer theft entirely, I think it would go some way to reducing it, and the registration database would also provide an effective and efficient way to reunite owners with their equipment and information in the event of it being recovered.