| That laptops are misplaced or stolen isn’t exactly news – not with all the high profile cases over the past couple of years. But the fact that business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops a week in American airports, according to a just-released report by the Ponemon Institute,
is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Especially when you consider that, according to Ponemon, which offers education, research and verification programs around information and privacy management, 53% of business travelers say they store confidential or sensitive information – everything from customer data, to confidential business report, to intellectual property – on their notebooks.
But it gets even more shocking.
According to Ponemon, 65% of these travelers don’t take any step to secure the information in their machines.
And it gets better still.
Many laptops lost at airports are recovered, but, according to the research, only 33% are reclaimed by their owners.
“The other 67% of subsequently found laptops remain in the airport until they are disposed of. As a result, there are potentially millions of files containing sensitive or confidential data that may be accessible to a large number of airport employees and contractors,” says Ponemon.
Jaw-dropping indeed.
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