Lost or stolen laptops and other digital media are the cause of more than 40% of data breaches.
Business travelers lose more than 10,000 laptops per week in U.S. airports.
An estimated 11,300 laptop computers, 31,400 handheld computers and 200,000 mobile telephones were left in taxis around the world during a recent six month period.
While these statistics may seem outrageous, I was recently on vacation in Chicago when one of my friends accidentally left his laptop sitting on the train. While his immediate response was, “Oh, *%$&!”, my thought was “Oh, no, I am going to have to blog about my friend’s company and their latest data breach….”
Luckily, no personal information was stored on the laptop and amazingly enough, the laptop was turned in to the transit lost and found. However, an important lesson was learned that day.
Laptops and other mobile devices are lost every day and headlines regarding these incidents need to be utilized by organizations to update policies and procedures with situational awareness to effectively manage people and prevent sensitive and confidential information from being exposed. Situational awareness is more than ‘dos and don’ts’, situational awareness involves understanding how information, events and a person’s actions will impact an organization’s goals and objectives now and in the future.
