The Ponemon institute recently conducted a study sponsored by Dell looking at laptop and data loss by travelers at airports.
June 30, 2008 - The Ponemon Institute recently released the results of a study regarding laptop and data loss in airports, and the policies and attitudes pertaining to these losses. The study is entitled: Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops. You may have seen the headlines in the paper and on the web the past few days "12000 Laptops Lost At Airports Each Week". While this is the most shocking and most quoted portion of the study, the results are frightening and surprising - particularly with regard to the attitudes of people towards the data on their computers. A surprising number do not back up their data or secure their sensitive data. While the number of laptops lost at an airport seems to be at least in part a reflection of how busy the airport is, the top 5 large airports for weekly laptop loss are:LAX, Miami International, JFK, Chicago Ohare and Newark Liberty International Airport. The security checkpoint followed by the departure gate were the sites where laptops are most frequently lost. Other surprising results are that 67% of lost laptops are never recovered, and that only 1% of survey respondants has lost a laptop, yet 84% of respondants know someone who has lost a laptop. Hmmm...
For full details, you can read the actual report here: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/dell_lost_laptop_study.pdf
Remember - If you eXpect delaYs, you can beat them!
Happy Travels
- Gus
