In 2009 a study found that 12,000 laptops were lost every week at US airports. And the very worst airport was at my home base of Los Angeles International, with 1200 or 10% of all of those lost or stolen. Only 33% of the laptops were ever recovered, 17% before the flight and 16% after. That means a lot of private and valuable data is never replaced and possibly, people got into trouble at work or at home. It seems so sad and so unnecessary, doesn’t it? It makes me feel so uncomfortable because I travel so much for my job as Norton’s Internet Safety Advocate and every time I go through LA’s International Airport, I scan my fellow travelers at the security checkpoints and I think, which one of you is going to forget your laptop or lose your tablet today?
Of course, with back up and other security measures, it doesn’t have to be a data nightmare if you lose your hardware. Theft is always a possibility for any business traveler and you should plan for it accordingly. There are various security applications to help you recover stolen devices on the market already but now there is one from Norton for your PC, in Beta, and I encourage you to give it a try.
When I was in college, oh so many years ago, it was very uncommon but not unheard of, for people’s computers to get stolen. That was when we all were using very unwieldy desktop systems. Now that students use slim, lightweight laptops that weigh almost nothing, theft is very common and can happen in the blink of an eye. I would highly recommend every student to invest in an anti-theft scheme and consider several layers of security from a physical device (such as a cable locking the laptop to the desk in your dorm room at night) to the technical (something that allows you to track the location of your laptop via geo-location). And then add your Norton Anti-Theft Beta product to that scheme! Happy Testing!