Posts Tagged ‘laptop’

Lost Laptops & mobiles cost BBC £240,000

August 12th, 2010

Laptops & mobiles worth more than £240,000 have been lost or stolen from the BBC over the last two years, a Freedom of Information Act request from an IT security company has revealed.

The equipment stolen from BBC or lost during the period from April 2008 to March this year included 146 laptops, 65 mobile phones and 17 BlackBerrys. The value of the missing laptops has been estimated at £219,000, the mobile phones at £12,913 and the Blackberrys at £9,106, according to BBC reports.

This comes to a total of £241,019, or the equivalent of 1,656 colour TV licenses costing £145.50 each, although 9 equipments, worth £23,450 were recovered.

The F.o.I. request also revealed that a BBC employee was investigated over the theft of a laptop, but whether a disciplinary action was taken against that employee is still unclear as the corporation could not confirm it.

The General Manager of the IT security company said “it is shocking that any organization could lose so much equipment, but the BBC is just one of many we’ve seen recently, proving it’s all too common.

“In this case, however, this technology is paid for by the license payer and employees should be far more careful about how they handle it.”

A BBC spokeswoman added: “The BBC takes theft very seriously and has implemented a number of measures to reduce the level of crime.

“The portability of laptops and phones means that in any large organization there is an inevitable risk of theft.”

Moreover, with the devices, the invaluable data on them was also stolen. Sure, the hardware theft is covered by the insurance in most cases, but the data lost in the theft is almost never recovered.

How Alertsec Xpress Would Have Helped

If you use a data security software a theft would simply be reduced to an insurance matter and cost of the hardware plus time to rebuild the laptop. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.

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Laptop Theft Incidents at Schools in Australia

July 6th, 2010
Our computers
Bunch of Laptops via Flickr

In two separate incidents, laptops have been reported to be stolen from school premises. In the first incident, burglars hit the Glen Osmond Primary School on 29th June at about 2.30am and managed to steal eight Apple laptop computers.

In another incident, the ABERFOYLE Park High School also suffered a theft incident. According to the reports, on Monday, June 28 around 30 laptop computers were stolen overnight.

According to the principal of the school, Liz Mead the hospital has implemented measures to although she didn’t share the details of the security methods.

According to Liz Mead, “You just feel very disappointed because the school does have very good security”. “These laptops are there for our young people to work on so it’s disappointing when we have people who want to interrupt the learning of others.”

Ms Mead also mentioned that the school had ordered new laptops which were supposed to be delivered after the school holidays.

Laptop theft incidents at schools is a matter of high concern, because not only does it impact the working, causes financial damage but also creates a spot on our education ecosystem. These laptops are being used for educational purposes, so obviously the loss is more than the theft of a physical device or data loss. This creates an urgent need for appropriate laptop encryption measures !!

If you have information related to either thefts please contact BankSA Crime Stoppers on 1800333000 or online at www.sa.crimestoppers.com.au

Security against Laptop Theft

Today, information is often an organization’s most important asset. As laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Most laptops are stolen at the work place, conference centers, hotel rooms, cars, airports and train stations. As statistics show, it is just impossible to be able to prevent theft to occur as opportunists are everywhere in our society. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subsribe for your personal 30-day free trial.

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Laptop theft at New Mexico

May 11th, 2010
Photo of a Dell XPS M140 Laptop.
Image via Wikipedia

Laptop encryption is vital not only from a perspective of providing protection against laptop theft but also from a view of ensuring the data present inside laptop is secure and upto date.

A couple of months back, an employee for a company that processes dental benefits claims filed for a stolen car report. Apparently, the vehicle’s trunk contained an ‘un-secure/unencrypted’ laptop which had loads of patient information. On learning about the incident, the New Mexico Human Services Department started sending notification messages to nearly 10,000 users of the government’s low-income health insurance program about potential for ID theft.

The information of patients included:

  • Name
  • Health plan identification number
  • A provider identification number but not the name of the provider

Additionally, the agency has also notified 9,500 New Mexicans who use its Medicaid Salud plan about a possible security breach.

Apart from notification letters, the group has set up a toll-free call line through DentaQuest, 1-877-453-8424, to address queries  from people affected by the incident. The helpline operates from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MDT, Monday through Friday.

According to the agency, “The computer was password protected but otherwise did not have safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to the information. At this time, the stolen car and laptop have not been recovered and it is not known whether the information on the laptop has been accessed.”

The theft and security breach has been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Stay Secure with Alertsec

Alertsec is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way. Alertsec Xpress is powered by Check Point Full Disk Encryption – the global leader in data encryption software with millions of users worldwide! For more information, visit our website right now.

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Stolen Laptops Reveals Private Details of 5,450 People

April 7th, 2010

While April 1st may be over, thieves are still making fools of companies left and right. The most recent victim is John Muir Health, a US hospital system, which has lost two laptops, compromising the personal health information of 5,450 patients. According to reports, the theft of the laptops occurred in early February, however, the organization is notifying the affected parties now.  The missing laptops weren’t protected by any type of encryption, making their contents relatively easy prey for savvy computer thieves. John Muir Health is rushing to do damage control: upgrading its security to include encryption on all computers and offering free identity theft protection services to patients whose private information may have been compromised.

We’ve seen this scenario over and over again. Companies are rarely prepared for any type of security breach and are thrown into a state of panic when one occurs. Don’t let your business fall into the trap. Learn from John Muir Health’s mistakes and improve data security at your company.

What Could Have Been Different?

Looking back, the folks at John Muir Health are probably wishing they did things a little differently. There are two main lessons for the company here- the first dealing with the importance enforcing proper workplace security practices and the other showcasing the value of encryption technology. Though the organization declined to explain how the laptops containing private medical records went missing, it’s quite likely that employee negligence played a role. Employees are usually the weakest links in a company and pose the biggest threat for a business’ security. Ideally, computers with private customer details or proprietary information would never leave the office or be accessible to outsiders.

Realistically, it’s extremely challenging to enforce such stringent measures; additionally doing so may be impractical, particularly for companies with “work-at-home” employees. It becomes a company’s responsibility to make sure that technology, especially computers which are taken out of the office or left alone in unmonitored areas, are properly protected from intruders. Encryption is the best defense a business can use to ensure that private information remains inaccessible to outsiders. It’s a cost effective technology which can help prevent serious damage in the future.

Had John Muir Health learned these two lessons before the laptops were stolent, the data breach could have been avoided entirely. Even if the employee had made a mistake and allowed the laptops to be taken, the medical information of 5,450 people would remain safe.

Consequences

As with most data breaches, John Muir Health had to face a number of consequences. On top of having to inform the patients affected by the theft and facing damage to it reputation, the company had to incur the expense of identity theft protection. Additionally, new laws could mean serious fines for the company- according the San Francisco Chronicle:

The 2009 federal stimulus package, which went into effect this year, requires medical security breaches affecting more than 500 people to be reported to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and to the local media. The new law establishes a wide range of fines – from as little as $100 per incident up to $1.5 million in extreme cases.

Businesses need to accept encryption as a key part of their data protection strategy. Do your company a favor and explore the benefits Alertsec Xpress can offer you.

Further Reading
John Muir Laptop Thefts Affect 5,450 [Health Data Management]
Laptops with medical data stolen [San Francisco Chronicle]

Laptop Safety Tips

October 13th, 2009

While we normally focus on encryption, so many of our articles discuss laptops and many of our readers deal with laptops every day.  So today we thought we would share tips for safety when you leave home with your laptop.  Obviously, encryption is the number one step – but there are other tips:

Laptop and International Travel Tips for Laptops

  • airport-laptopIf your laptop is new, take receipts – you don’t want your local customs charging you when you return, thinking you bought it abroad!
  • Don’t forget to take a voltage adapter on your laptop, as well as preparing a power plug adapter
  • Make a back-up of all your data before you leave the country
  • It is highly unlikely, but possible that a customs officer decides to search your laptop as you bring it into this other country So you should be sure that your hard drive doesn’t have anything that it shouldn’t. This includes pornography as the definition of what is or isn’t porn varies by country.  Also, if you work for a security or defense type firm realize that information that appears normal to you, could be considered espionage by an overzealous customs officer.
  • Also unlikely, but you may be required to decrypt any encrypted files for customs.

School and Library Security Tips for Laptops

  • Permanently mark your laptop with your contact information – this may deter thieves, since it makes resale more difficult.  Also consider pasting the laptop with stickers.
  • Use a generic backpack and not a custom laptop bag – a backpack may not be as obvious to thieves that a laptop is inside.
  • Don’t leave your laptop unattended at your feet in a bag. If you should become distracted or fall asleep your laptop is easy game – consider setting an alarm on your PC if you are tired to avoid this risk.
  • When using public wireless connections, be wary of logging into sites as passwords could be made available to others!

In Flight Security Tips for Laptops

  • airplane-laptopPlan ahead as to which luggage case will house your laptop.  You don’t want to store your laptop in an overhead bin if it’s in a soft case.
  • Close and put away your laptop when meals are served so there’s no risk of a beverage tipping onto it – I have personally seen this happen twice.  One time, my then six year old daughter learned many new and “interesting” words when the laptop owner was shrieking at the stewardess.
  • When you leave your seat, close your laptop and put it away or leave it on the seat, not the tray where it could more easily slip off during turbulence.

While laptops are essentially made for traveling – there are so many things you can do to ensure their safety. From the security of encryption to plain common sense on how you care for your belongings.