These days, it’s as much as your life is worth to sit down in a Starbuck’s with a latte and a laptop.
Think we’re joking? A San Francisco man recently suffered a collapsed lung when he was stabbed in the chest by thieves who made off with his Apple Powerbook. According to law-enforcement officials in many U.S. cities, cyber-cafes and other popular wireless nesting grounds have grown popular with creeps after quick cash.
This may seem radical, but as one expert pointed out, what other thousand-dollar objects do you see lying around unprotected in urban areas?
The brazen thieves sell the computers for a fraction of their value, police say – often as little as $100.
Priceless data
For employees whose laptops hold key company information, the $1,000 to $2,500 it costs to replace the hardware is a minor issue. Much more important is the potential loss to the company of the data on the hard drive. Recent studies show that laptops often include over $1 million worth of information, including product and marketing plans, customer lists, and other information.
Moreover, many respected U.S. businesses have been embarrassed publicly and faced costly lawsuits when personal information belonging to customers went missing due to a lost or stolen laptop.
Experts say a few commonsense precautions can prevent employees from costing their companies millions:
Think very carefully about whether customer data should even reside on laptop computers.
© National Security Institute, Inc.