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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39124846,00.htm

Leader: How do you value your laptop?
Worth £899.99 in the shops, maybe, but what is it worth to you and your business?

By silicon.com

Published: Friday 08 October 2004

A raft of laptop thefts and data breaches have hit the headlines in recent weeks - ranging from the IT security professional who works for Netegrity who left his laptop unguarded at the Gartner IT Security Summit to the wannabe pop starlet Natasha Bedingfield who apparently had her laptop containing new material stolen from an airport (of all places).

To make matters worse for the Bedingfield family, but arguably better for the rest of us, news emerged earlier this week that Natasha's equally talented (read into that what you like) brother Daniel was recently the victim of hackers who cracked his laptop and deleted, rather than stole it would seem, a load of new songs he had been working on.

Everybody's a critic, and while the world of music may owe these individuals a debt of gratitude, silicon.com obviously can't condone their actions.

But these incidents less than three weeks apart bring into the popular mainstream the issue of laptop security. It's something the IT industry has long known about, but the Netegrity incident mentioned above suggests even 'those in the know' aren't as clued up as they should be - even though the assumption was made that a Security Summit was about as safe a place to leave a laptop as could be.

Critics of that assumption would argue that when surrounded by your rivals your laptop should be as close to your chest as possible.

It seems taking any data out and about is still a recipe for disaster and while the Bedingfields may be upset that they've lost some pop music there are far worse instances of data loss out there.

The infamous tale of advertisements across America, appealing for the return of a stolen laptop which contained years'-worth of AIDS research, stored nowhere else, springs to mind.

The cost of replacement is pretty black and white. If you paid £899 in the shops that's the likely cost of replacement, depending on your insurance or your desire to replace like for like.

But imagine telling your boss that you've lost the full year's accounts, the customer database, the presentation for today's make-or-break sales pitch. Imagine telling your employer that his company's very existence was left under a table in the Dog & Fox or in the back of a black cab heading back into town. Don't assume it couldn't happen to you, and ensure you have the appropriate measures in place - back-up and protect - for when, not if, it does.

Nobody wants to lose a laptop. That's a given. We certainly don't want to go through the ordeal of having it stolen, but more important is the understanding that is currently lacking, that it is quite likely to be the information on the laptop that is more valuable than the laptop itself. Your boss won't sack you for getting your laptop stolen. But if you hadn't backed-up for six months and your password was 'password' there may be no saving you.