Research released today by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Dell reveals that nearly 4,000 laptops are lost or go missing in Europe’s major airports every week.
To make matters worse, nearly half of surveyed mobile professionals carry confidential company information and don’t take steps to protect it.
The research found that some 57pc of the laptops which go missing in the eight largest airports in the EMEA region are never reclaimed. One of the major contributing factors to this is that most have no identifying label.
The European airports where the most laptops are lost missing or stolen are London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
“It’s staggering to learn that more than 175,000 laptops are lost or go missing in the major European airports every year, with many containing sensitive information that organisations must account for,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute.
“IT departments must re-evaluate the steps they’re taking to protect mobile professionals, the laptops they carry and company data stored on mobile devices.”
Another worrying finding is that the research indicates some 42pc of EMEA mobile professionals have not backed up the data stored on their laptops and some 55pc of business travelers have not taken steps to protect their confidential information in the event of it being parted from them. This data can include customer and consumer information, confidential business information and intellectual property such as software code and product renderings.
To help combat the issues highlighted in the research, Dell today launched Dell ProSupport Mobility Services, a suite of modular asset and data protection services. Among other things, it helps organisations more accurately track and recover lost or stolen laptops and enables people to remotely delete sensitive company information.
By Sorcha Corcoran
