Business travelers are losing more than 12,000 laptops per week at U.S. airports. Only one-third of those are reclaimed, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Dell. At the same time, more than 53 percent of polled business travelers say their laptops contain confidential or sensitive information, and 65 percent of these travelers admit they do not take steps to protect or secure the information contained on their laptop.

Companies are dependent on a mobile workforce with access to information no matter where they travel. This mobility, however, is putting companies at risk of having a data breach if a laptop containing sensitive information is lost or stolen. To gather more information about this concern, the Ponemon Institute conducted field research at 106 major airports in 46 states and surveyed 864 business travelers in an airport environment. Among the findings revealed in this study:

The average loss frequency among the largest U.S. airports is 286 laptops per week or 10,278 for all 36 Class B airports included in the study. The comparable frequency for the remaining large U.S. airports is 28 devices per week, or 1,977 for all 70 Class C airports included in the study.

The airports with the highest number of lost, missing or stolen laptops include: Los Angeles International, Miami International, Kennedy International and Chicago O'Hare. While Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International is the busiest airport in the United States, it is tied for eighth place (with Washington's Reagan National) for lost, stolen or missing laptop computers.

The 67 percent of subsequently found laptops remain in the airport until they are disposed of, often sold at auction to the highest bidder or donated to charity, resulting in potentially millions of files containing sensitive or confidential data that may be accessible to a large number of airport employees and contractors.

Part of the problem is that more than 70 percent of business travelers feel rushed when trying to get on their flights, and 60 percent worry that delays due to security checkpoints will cause them to miss their flight.

The stress of rushing to catch a flight, combined with the number of items business travelers typically carry (i.e., laptops, cell phones, PDAs, briefcases, luggage), creates a situation that is conducive to property loss. The rate of loss may be exacerbated by checkpoint security procedures that require passengers to separate from their personal property during electronic scanning or pat downs.

According to the study, the types of company information contained on business travelers' laptop computers include customer or consumer data (47 percent), business confidential information (46 percent), intellectual property such as software code, drawings or renderings (14 percent), and employee records (13 percent).

According to U.S. airport representatives, the most common airport locations where laptops are lost include security checkpoints (40 percent) and departure gates (23 percent).

The average business cost when confidential personal information is lost or stolen is $197 per record, says the Ponemon Institute. Even one missing laptop, however, can become a serious problem for any organization.

E-mail data loss still a problem

Data protection continues to be a hot topic, according to a report from security vendor Proofpoint, as large-scale breaches of personal information continue to come to light and as the regulatory environment becomes more sophisticated. Proofpoint surveyed 301 e-mail decision makers at U.S. enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.

Forty-one percent of organizations with 20,000 or more employees employ staff to read or otherwise analyze outbound e-mail. Overall, more than one quarter (29 percent) of companies surveyed employ such staff. More than one in three (38 percent) perform regular audits of outbound e-mail.

Forty-four percent investigated a suspected e-mail leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months. Forty percent investigated a suspected violation of privacy or data protection regulations.

Twenty-three percent said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last 12 months. Eighteen percent said they had been impacted by improper exposure or theft of customer information.

More than a quarter (26 percent) terminated an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months. More than half (51 percent) disciplined an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months.

More than a quarter (27 percent) investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months. Fifty-six percent of respondents are concerned or very concerned about the risk of information leakage via e-mail sent from mobile devices.

Interestingly, seventy-five percent are concerned or very concerned about protecting the confidentiality of personal identity and financial information in outbound e-mail.

How to avoid the pitfalls of UC

With a technology as complex as unified communications (UC), looking for shorter-term solutions is tempting, says Forrester Research consultant Elizabeth Herrell. These short-term solutions only consider some of the components, however, and could lead to more difficulties when managing disparate applications. "The reality is that most solutions do not interoperate well with other vendor's platforms," she adds. To avoid the pitfalls, she suggests:

Shorten your list of vendors. Focus on those that support your current investments. Consider partnerships among providers for supporting an end-to-end solution. Evaluate what services you want each vendor to provide based on the relative merits of each application. Determine which vendor's product best meets end-users' needs.

Consider application integration and interoperability. UC will extend to support multiple applications and, in some cases, be embedded within the application. These capabilities are still in their early stages but could affect product choices.

Choose your service integrator with care. Services can represent a major cost factor for UC upgrades. Look for a service integrator with a firm track record with the vendor you are considering and evaluate its skills in voice, data and UC support. Leading service integrators have reference accounts; contact them for feedback.

Talk to security and risk colleagues regarding security requirements. Most organizations will need to fortify their current security measures to protect against unwanted intrusions on an integrated software platform. Approach the CISO and security and risk managers for an internal audit.

Get early users to adopt new behaviors. UC capabilities are usually well received, but users need to change some communication patterns to gain UC's advantages. Training new users goes a long way toward promoting adoption.

Short takes

Hosted VoIP

Ashworth & Sullivan Wealth Management Group has selected C4 IP from Cypress Communications as its hosted VoIP and unified communications solution. "Cypress has a service level that no one else offered, and they back it up with top-notch technology-routers from Cisco and phones from Nortel," says Casey Sullivan, managing partner at Ashworth & Sullivan. "As a financial services firm, we needed a communications solution that would reinforce our professional image, as well as help us provide great service to our clients, and we found the perfect solution with C4 IP. With its unified messaging and call-routing features, we'll always be within reach of the people and information we need the most."

Wireless security

The Clinton Public School System in Connecticut has selected Aruba Networks' wireless LAN technology for use in wireless video-surveillance systems at the district's four elementary, intermediate and high schools. The first deployment collects surveillance video from Panasonic cameras over secure Wi-Fi links, delivers the data to a Milestone IP Surveillance System, and makes the video available to school officials and police vehicles over an encrypted Wi-Fi channel. "Given the size and design of our facilities, we determined that video surveillance was our best option for detecting unwanted visitors," says John Crovo, IT director for the city of Clinton.