New research by the Ponemon Institute for Dell, reveals that hundreds of thousands of the 63 million laptops purchased by organisations this year, will be lost, go missing or left unattended at airports, and 57 percent of those lost that end up in lost and found departments will go unclaimed. Nearly half of those professionals surveyed also keep confidential information on their laptops, with over half taking no steps to protect that data in the event of a loss or theft.

To protect data on laptops on the move, Dell today introduced Dell ProSupport Mobility Services, a suite of modular asset and data protection services to help organisations protect laptop computers and company information, especially when the computers are lost or go missing – a rapidly growing problem for a mobile workforce.

The Ponemon Institute research also found that more than 3,300 laptops are lost or go missing in the eight largest airports in EMEA each week and 57% of those that end up in lost and found departments are never reclaimed. One of the major contributing factors to this is that the vast majority have no external identifying label. The European airports where the most laptops are lost, missing or stolen3 are London Heathrow – 900 per week; Amsterdam – 750; and Paris Charles de Gaulle – 733. Additionally, Ponemon estimates that 12,000 laptops are lost, missing or stolen weekly in U.S. airports.

“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.”

For many organisations, the loss of valuable information contained on the systems may be of even greater concern. The research also indicates that 42 percent of EMEA mobile professionals have not backed up the data stored on their laptops and 55 percent of business travelers have not taken steps to protect their confidential information in the event of them being parted from their laptops. This data can include customer and consumer information, confidential business information and intellectual property such as software code and product renderings.

To help organisations keep mobile workers and assets protected and connected, Dell is expanding its ProSupport portfolio originally launched in February 2008 by introducing new asset and data protection services for ProSupport for IT and ProSupport for End-Users service models.

These include:

• Laptop Tracking and Recovery – helps organisations more accurately track and recover lost or stolen laptops.
• Remote Data Delete – enables customers to remotely delete sensitive company data if a laptop is lost or stolen.
• Hard Drive Data Recovery – uses forensics to retrieve information from a failed or damaged hard drive.
• Certified Data Destruction – helps customers meet compliance requirements, by destroying notebook data, providing certification of destruction, and disposing of the customer’s hard drive in an environmentally responsible manner.
• CompleteCare Accidental Damage – covers repair and replacement costs associated with accidental damages to laptops caused by spills, drops and surges.
• Extended Battery Service – expands battery warranties to cover a replacement battery should the primary battery fail.

“Laptops will soon become more prevalent than desktops in business,” said Graham Hill, director, Services and Solutions, Dell EMEA. “Dell is providing services and system features now to keep organisations, their mobile professionals and the company information they carry ‘Protected and Connected’ at all times.”

“Dell is continuing to listen to their customers and is introducing services aimed at addressing their needs,” said Matt Healey, Research Manager, IDC Software and Hardware Support Services. “Dell ProSupport Mobility Services provides an added layer of protection for the busy and fast-moving mobile workforce of today’s economy. Adding this layer of protection can help these employees become more productive and face the challenges of business today.”

Dell ProSupport Mobility Services are available today in EMEA to Dell Registered Partners, corporate and small- and medium-size businesses and public organizations from July.

Note:
Laptop Lost & Found data is available for the top 8 EMEA airports including London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Paris CDG, London Gatwick, Frankfurt, Munich, Dubai and Madrid International Airports.