Laptop Theft Rises
Recently I had my laptop stolen and I lost a large amount of personal information, including journals and credit card numbers. As I looked into statistics about laptop theft, I found it was quite common and that thefts are rising. According to the FBI, one out of every ten laptops are stolen within the first twelve months of purchase and about 88-90% will never be recovered.
Despite the fact that laptops are made for mobility, a recent study in Support Republic found that most laptops were lost or stolen on corporate property, not while traveling. Even though laptops are worth only a few thousand dollars, one stolen laptop can cost a company an average of $89,000 (according to the FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey).
Although you can take steps to protect yourself from laptop theft and can save information through remote backup methods, it is scary to think that you can’t protect yourself from your personal information leaking when large corporations have laptops and computers stolen. For instance, in 2002 the U.S. Justice Department admitted that more than 400 laptop computers had gone missing in the past three years. Also in 2002 about 2,000 IRS laptops were lost or stolen that may contain taxypayers’ private information (from CNET News.com).
It is a more common phenomenon than you think, with laptops being stolen from such companies such as Verizon Wireless, Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and even Bank of America. Even if just one laptop is stolen from these companies, it can affect thousands of people, as evidenced by the stolen Bank of America laptop. About 18,000 Bank of America customers’ names, addresses, and social security numbers were on that stolen laptop, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Learn from me and protect yourself from theft by never leaving your laptop unattended, or at least installing security features to protect yourself if it ever is stolen.