A 007 approach to laptop security

If you use a laptop it is likely the thing you fear the most, missing it or having it stolen. As more companies move their staff on to mobile devices, having a eventuality in place for when disaster strikes is now a must for IT departments

One Boeing worker knows full well what it's like to lose their laptop, actually the loss was considered so severe they also lost their job. The PC obviously contained work and personal details of over 350,000 current and retired staff from the aerospace manufacturer.

The laptop was said to be turned off, password protected and all the files were encrypted, but it was not enough to help the person keep their job. The trouble was that this was not the first time the company had hit the headlines for an incident like this.

When it happened before, Jim McNerney, Boeing's chairman, president and C.E.O. said that security standards would be enhanced. This clearly did not have much of an effect and this latest loss was deemed so severe that the person's managers will also be disciplined.

If it's any solace to Boeing, the company is not only in suffering from embarrassing laptop loses. Throw your minds back to 2000 when an MI5 agent lost their laptop. The occurrence was considered so harsh that the then Home Secretary Jack Straw was informed as was Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Even though there may not have been a danger to national security, another loss from an employee of building society countrywide goes to show that losing just one laptop can have huge consequences for your company.

The laptop in question was taken from the employee's house during a break-in but, according to countrywide, did not contain any banking details of the building society's customers, PINs or transaction information.

It did say, though, that because of the limited data on the PC there was a danger of possible identity stealing. After the loss, national wrote to all its customers explanation the security measures it has in place. It did not say whether the data on the laptop was encrypted.

Each of these losses prove that by enabling staff to take their work home with them, the data they take may be at risk. When employees are sat at their desks, linked to a company's network, there are several layers of protection. Many of these layers are left behind the second they unplug.

In order to find some of this protection, every company should have a procedure and practices in place for every person who uses a laptop.

The amount of data that is stored on mobile devices is astonishing. In fact according Martin Allen, managing director of Pointsec Mobile Technologies, in his article 'A Day in the Life of Mobile Data': 'over 80 % of new and critical data is now stored on mobile devices'.

The main defense all companies should use is data encryption software. There is no reason for any business these days not to use some form of encryption as it is cheap and easy to use. Depending on the software you choose for, files are encrypted seamlessly as they are copied from folders and passed between colleagues.

This is often 'on the fly' and in the background so users do not have the option not to use it and leave files vulnerable. Actually for encryption to be an efficient defense it should be mandatory for all file transfers.

After all if a user has to remember to encrypt a file after they have put it on to their PC or USB memory storage, they might not always do so. Also if they have the ability to turn it off they will do; it is amazing what people do to speed things up.
After all if a user has to remember to encrypt a file after they have store to their PC or USB memory storage, they might not for all time do so. Also if they have the ability to turn it off they will do; it's amazing what people do to speed things up.

Many companies often think that once a laptop has gone there is no hope. By bad luck that usually is the case unless you invest in tracking software for all mobile equipment.

The idea of tracking laptops may sound a bit James Bond, whereas really it is just common sense. There are many options available that install a small applet that runs in the background, that use hardly any system resources. Type 'laptop tracking' into your favorite search engine and see.

 

At any time the user goes online it sends a message to the software provider giving it's IP address, the phone number of the line it's using and the ISP. If the laptop is listed as stolen, if it is used on the internet, then the software provider works with local police force to locate the laptop. Some software also enables users to remotely delete files from the stolen machine to prevent data falling into the wrong hands.

Something else that many experts advise is to analyze where, when and how the laptop was lost, to see if there's any pattern to it.

It is now possible to buy laptop back packs that protect the PC as well as making them more comfortable to carry and less conspicuous. Nevertheless, if you replace everyone's laptop bag with a back pack you do run the risk of thieves cottoning on and stealing them instead, of course.

It is a huge understatement to say that data loss in any environment, home or work, is bad. When that data can be used by a person outside of your company, the consequences are even worse. In cases such as internet banking, where you might also lose money, repairing the damage and the loss of confidence from your customers could take a long time.

Everybody likes to be able to work everywhere they are with ease; however this means that every business that enables its staff to do this must examine its data security closely. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure so make sure you are covered before it's too late