At a loss over data loss

20-08-2008

by Ralph Averbuch

It's always other people who have their laptops stolen. Isn't it? Fortunately this blogger has never (yet) had the misfortune of losing a laptop, but has lost two mobiles on the London Underground (dropped or stolen) and squashed an MP3 player tumbling off a bicycle after getting stuck in the tram lines in Dublin city centre. On the upside, the phones at least were password locked and the MP3 player, which also had work files on it, was destroyed beyond use. But there's clearly a problem when it comes to personal and business data. More and more of us are constantly on the move, working remotely and carrying (probably) quite sensitive information on our smartphones or laptops. Yet how many of us actually encrypt any of the data -- apart from perhaps password protecting access to the laptop? Do you? Do you know anyone who does? Now, it seems that this is a fault, not of the technology, but of people. We're a tardy bunch who just don't or can't be bothered to protect our information, assuming that the worst will never happen. But it does. All the time. Every week there's another story about yet another government department where a member of staff sent an unencrypted CD that's been lost, or had their laptop nicked with lots of lovely, potentially valuable, data on it. And the answer? Well the solutions are out there, but so long as they rely on us as individuals to implement, they will never be fool-proof . So, for your own peace of mind, try to encrypt all sensitive data on your PC and don't use an obvious password. It won't stop your laptop falling into unsavoury hands, but it might prevent you getting fired from your job.