Dell and the Ponemon Institute conducted a study, Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops, to fully understand the risks posed to sensitive and confidential data contained in the laptops of business travelers.  The findings of this study can help   companies understand what they should be doing to protect the information on their employees’ laptops and to reduce the likelihood that their employees will lose laptops while traveling.

The Dell/Ponemon study was not simply the gathering of stories.  To complete the study, the Ponemon Institute conducted field research at 106 major airports across the United States to determine the frequency of lost or missing laptops at their locations. In addition to laptop loss frequency, they captured information about airport operating practices concerning laptop recovery, reclamation rates, and disposal procedures.

The data they uncovered is amazing – and consider that the numbers are already months old and during the last year portable and especially netbook growth has continued:

• Business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops per week in U.S. airports.  That’s in the US only!
• Only 33% of laptops within the lost and found departments in airports are reclaimed.  Many of the rest are sold off, leaving “potentially millions of files containing sensitive or confidential data that may be accessible to a large number of airport employees and contractors”.
• According to U.S. airport representatives, the most common airport locations where laptops are lost or missing include security checkpoints (40%) and departure gates (23%).

And here is the killer data from the security perspective, “Over 53% of business travelers say that their laptops contain confidential or sensitive information. However, 65% of these travelers admit they do not take steps to protect or secure the information contained on their laptop.”

The numbers are all there.  The risks are there.  The solutions are not that hard – but companies need to step up to give their IT staff the time to implement data encryption and the time with the portable owners to properly train them about data encryption and best practices.