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Laptop
PC are lost or stolen all the time. This does not just
happen to the traveling employee.
A survey
conducted by Kensington several years ago indicated, "two out of every
five laptop thefts occur in the office".
According to Gartner Group, "Up to 80% of corporate computer crime
or laptop theft in North America is a result of inside jobs".
According to the Meta
Group, a typical large firm suffers between $1 million and $3
million in losses due to laptop theft. When loss of business
data is included, losses can exceed $20 million, and can be
catastrophic if confidential data lands with a competitor.
The asset loss
associated with laptop theft is substantial. However, losing the
laptop and its installed software is often the least worry among
corporate and government users of laptops PC. Following are some
of the serious concerns:
The risk that confidential or sensitive
information will be lost or even stolen is the biggest concern
for corporate and government laptop PC users. According to the
Gartner Group informal surveys indicate that 15% of laptop
thefts are committed to obtain confidential information.
The risk that a stolen laptop will be used to
gain unauthorized access to corporate networks. Over 50% of
computer crimes are linked to stolen laptop PC.
Business interruption losses and administrative
costs involved in obtaining and setting up new systems, worst
when employees have not regularly backed up the information on
the hard drive. Re-entering data is not just time consuming, but
very costly.
Then there is concerns about liability and
lawsuit when confidential
information from a third party such as customer and vendor is
lost. This is a particular issue in the financial and health
care industry. |
