Over a Half Million Laptops Missing in a Year

The laptops are missing – or stolen. And the number of laptops is staggering. Christopher Null is reporting that in American airports, there are over a half million laptops missing each year:

“…1,200 laptops a week go missing at Los Angeles International Airport, and 12,000 laptops are lost or stolen nationally at airports every week. All told, that means that 624,000 laptops go missing in airports each year. You can talk about phishing scams and email viruses until you’re blue in the face, but numbers like that put those digital computer crimes to shame.”

link: 1200 laptops lost each week at LAX

There must be a massive amount of personal confidential information compromised daily when laptops go missing. The information might not be personal to the laptop owner. If the information contains business files, the amount of public information that is lost may be monumental. It seems that the local airport is a good place for an identity thief to look for data. And, it would be a safe bet that a high per centage of these missing laptops do not have encryption. – Well, perhaps the travellers who read Chris Pirillo’s web site might have encryption.

Catherine Forsythe