NEBRASKA ARE FORTIFIED NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS THE ANSWER TO PROTECT AGINST STOLEN LAPTOPS http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Fp2820%2F30p20%2F30p20.asp&guid=&searchtype=&WordList=&bJumpTo=True

On-Disk Encryption Helps Protect Stolen Laptops

As corporate workers become more mobile, the company information they use travels farther and farther from the data center. According to IDC reports, by 2008, one out of every two computers in the world will be a laptop. Yet, according to FBI estimates, the second most common crime, just after identity theft, is laptop theft. Each year, 2 million notebook computers are reported stolen, which doesn’t take into account the systems left at airports, coffee shops, and bus terminals.

On the corporate campus, data encryption over both wired and wireless networks ensures that hackers have to work overtime to steal sensitive company data. These secure networks help small and midsized enterprises comply with new regulations such as HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and Sarbox. However, once employees leave the building, security becomes less and less reliable.

Software-Based Approach One traditional solution is to use software-based encryption methods. (See the "Disk Encryption Comparison” sidebar.) These powerful tools often support robust authentication, such as smartcards and biometrics. However, they have two main failings. One is that if a laptop is stolen, thieves are sometimes industrious enough to simply remove the disk and use it on a different notebook to steal the data. According to IDC, a stolen laptop costs about $6,000 for the hardware, on average, but another $46,000 in data theft, on average.

Secondly, even if the thief doesn’t remove the disk, software encryption is somewhat unreliable because there is still a data transmission from the disk to WinXP. Security vulnerabilities exist, and thieves may do a memory dump from a hard disk in order to discover authentication passwords and retrieve data.

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