Posts Tagged ‘Laptop Security’

Earlier this month, PC World posted a true story about a man who was able to recover his stolen laptops using a free remote-access service, LogMeIn.

The story was this: David Krop left 2 laptops in his SUV in a parking garage while he attended a meeting. The computers were stolen and they weren’t even password protected. However, David had a trial access of LogMeIn installed, which allowed him to remotely access his laptop. He was able to use this service to see that his stolen laptop was being used by its alleged thief. By spying on this person, and collecting all his personal information as he browsed the internet (including his face via a video chat), Krop was able to supply information to the police. The police were then able to recover the laptop.

Now, this sounds like a good deal, right? However, it’s a pretty a-typical situation to be in, and does not guarantee laptop recovery. The scenario depended on many factors, including:

• That the unauthorized user did not dismiss the tracking icon that appeared when his laptop activity was being watched
• That the unauthorized user would reveal a wide variety of detailed personal information while using the laptop (phone number, email address, face)
• That the unauthorized user wouldn’t wipe all the existing software off the computer

As you can see, using LogMeIn or other free laptop tracking or remote access services is not the same thing as using a dedicated laptop tracking & recovery program and service such as Computrace or LoJack for Laptops from Absolute Software. Only Absolute has a dedicated Theft Recovery Team to work with police to recover your computer. Our software does not require your to sit around waiting for the alleged thief to supply detailed information about him/herself – all investigations and tracking are done on your behalf.  And you don’t have to hope to talk a police officer into taking on your case – we have existing relationships with local police around the world. Also, most PCs also now have our software at the BIOS level, protecting it from being wiped if software is deleted. So even if a crafty thief that tries to remove the software, the BIOS firmware will make sure its installed.

David Krop has learned his lesson about leaving his laptop in his car. And he now uses remote tracking software. If you aren’t yet set up to track your laptop, check out our theft recovery products here.

We talk a lot about travel and laptop security here on the blog, but one thing we’ve never discussed is safe in-flight laptop practices. And by “safe” I refer to not just data security, but to keeping your laptop from being damaged in any way during flight.

Mary Jo Manzanares, a flight attendant and travel writer, has put together a list of in-flight laptop precautions that will make you think twice about when – and how – you use your laptop on the airplane. The tips include:

• Don’t store your laptop in an overhead bin if it’s in a soft case
• Don’t angle your laptop into the aisle
• Close and put away your laptop during service periods, so there’s no risk of a beverage tipping onto it (yours or anyone elses)
• Keep your laptop within your own seat space
• If you leave your seat, close your laptop and put it away or leave it on the seat, not the tray

Other blog posts on travel & laptop security you may wish to read include:

• Tips for Laptops and International Travel
• Airport Laptop Security Tips
• Airport Security-Friendly Laptop Bags
• Airports a threat to laptop security
• Absolute Recovers Laptop After Flight Attendant Loses It En Route

Image: clipart

Absolute Software announced this month that geofencing capabilities will now be supported for commercial Computrace customers.

What is geofencing? A geofence is a virtual perimeter on a geographic area using a location-based service, so that when the geofencing device enters or exits the area a notification is generated. The notification can contain information about the location of the device… – Wikipedia

The Absolute geofencing feature allows IT asset managers to incorporate the physical location of a device into their IT Asset Management strategy. If any device goes outside a pre-set perimeter and stays outside that perimeter for a set period of time, customers would be notified, allowing for a fast response to any suspicious activities, including remotely deleting data and/or reporting the device as stolen.

“By adding geofencing, our customers know sooner when mobile devices may be out of their control, so they can quickly protect the security of those devices.” – John Livingston, CEO of Absolute

Learn more about this new capability here or watch a demo here.

September marks the return to school for many people – either to high school or university. The reality of school these days is that many – if not most – students will now have laptops. And a student may find his or herself spending time studying in the library with that laptop. So, how can you keep it safe?

Presumably, you already have Computrace LoJack for Laptops installed. In the event that your laptop is stolen, we can help recover it. Of course, you want to prevent that theft to begin with, so let’s look at some tips for that.

Basic Library Laptop Security Tips

• Permanently mark the exerior of your laptop with your contact information – this may deter thieves, since it makes resale more difficult
• Choose a good laptop lock, and make sure you attach your laptop to a permanent fixture
• Have a study buddy - that way, if either one of you needs to get up, the other can watch the laptops & bags.
• Choose a non-obvious laptop bag – a backpack may not be as obvious to thieves that a laptop is inside. However, opportunistic thieves may take an unattended bag, regardless of its contents
• Don’t leave your laptop unattended at your feet in a bag. If you should become distracted or fall asleep (hey, it happens!), it becomes too easy for someone to take the bag
• Have other security measures in place, such as a laptop alarm and encryption
• If using public wireless connections, be wary of what kind of information – and passwords – could be made available to others! This item is not so much about physical theft, but it can’t hurt to re-iterate its importance.

There is NO foolproof method of securing your laptop if you leave it unattended. The ONLY way to prevent theft is to take your laptop with you anytime you leave your work station – to get a book, to talk to someone or to use the washroom. It is a hassle, but it’s worth it!

These same tips would apply any time you’re out in a public place – be it around the school, in a cafe, or anywhere else. The only difference with the library is that a library may “feel” more safe – because of the secluded study areas. However, in reality, these private study areas make it much easier for someone to walk up and steal your laptop unnoticed if it’s left unattended.

Image: Clipart

The NY Times had put a great article this week entitled "On the Trail of the Missing Gadget." Of course, Absolute Software’s Computrace / LoJack products fall into this category of "missing gadgetry retrieval", so to speak. The article does a great job of generalizing how these technologies and services work, and how absolutely easy it is for the end user. The software just sits there until you need it – then we do all the work to help retrieve your missing gadget if it does go missing! Simple!

With the case of more advanced technology, like we employ at Absolute, the recovery is aided by services such as GPS, keystroke captures, or by internet connections to gather evidence and help determine where the lost device is being used. At Absolute, our recovery team also continues the process until the point when the device is recovered. This is by far the safest route, as you, the customer, never come in contact with the criminals. This also enables law enforcement agencies to prosecute those responsible for thefts.

John Livingston, CEO of Absolute, explains why:

"We will purposefully never reveal a location to a consumer customer. We won’t do it. Once you declare that it’s lost or stolen, we take control over the location at that point. We purposely keep some safe distance between the end user and the thief."

Absolute employs a team of 40 investigators with experience in law enforcement. This team then works closely with local law enforcement agencies to recover stolen devices. If you have sensitive data on your device, you have the option to trigger a remote delete of that data. We’re also working on a way to permanently disable the computers, which will hopefully be another deterrent to theft.

You can learn more about the Absolute recovery process here.

PC World has put together a series of tips about traveling abroad with your laptop. The tips are more targeted to regular travelers than business travelers and are quite useful.

Tips for your Laptop and International Travel:

• If your hotel doesn’t have ethernet or Wi-Fi, a local cafe will. Internet connections won’t be an issue!
• Customs may search your laptop as you bring it into this other country – be sure your hard drive doesn’t have anything that it shouldn’t (this includes private information as well as information that could be considered espionage and pornography)
• You may be required to decrypt any encrypted files for customs. Be prepared to do this.
• Make a back-up of all your data before you leave the country
• If you expect you’ll need any ‘private’ data while abroad, you can store it online in a secure location accessible by FTP or other secure means. You can thus download it once you’ve passed customs.
• If your laptop is new, take receipts – you don’t want your local customs charging you when you return, thinking you bought it abroad!
• Don’t forget to take a voltage adapter on your laptop, as well as preparing a power plug adapter

Don’t forget to check our past blog posts about Laptops in Airports here, here and here. And be sure to beef up the security of your laptop before you go with LoJack for Laptops or Computrace.

Image: clipart

According to the 2009 Annual Study on Enterprise Encryption Trends, completed by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by PGP, indicates that while encryption strategies have become more consistent, data breaches continue to be an issue. In addition, the data indicates that mobile security is becoming more of an issue, with 51% of respondents indicating a complete lack of encryption on mobile devices (smartphones, PDAs).

This is the 4th annual study on enterprise encryption, basing the data this year on 997 IT and security practitioners in the US (a UK study is also available). The study looks at trends in encryption use, planning strategies, budgeting, and deployment methodologies in enterprise IT.

Highlights from the study:

• 78% of organizations have an encryption strategy in place (74% in 2008)
• 85% experienced at least one data breach in the last 12 months (84% in 2008)
• 22% experienced >5 data breaches in the last 12 months (13% in 2008)
• 58% say data protection is a very important part of overall risk management
• 59% say encryption of data on mobile devices is very important or important
• 26% indicate they encrypt their smartphone or PDA ‘most of the time’
• 51% have no encryption in place for the smartphone or PDA

I was surprised that the repeat data breach figures had gone up so dramatically, showing perhaps that data breaches are becoming chronic issues in some companies. This could indicate a lack of proactive security planning and risk assessment.

The study does indicate that companies are seeking out encryption solutions to preserve brand and reputation, in addition to mitigating breaches and meeting compliance regulations. This shows, perhaps, that companies are ready to take a more pro-active approach to security planning. Remember, too, that encryption is only a part of the solution to pro-active security planning. Absolute Software can help with other pieces of that puzzle, providing IT Asset Management & Theft Recovery for laptops and mobile devices.

Download the report, for the UK or the US, here.

Via SC Magazine

Absolute Software recently attended the Infosec conference, and Bill Pound, VP international corporate development at Absolute, has an article out this week in ComputerWeekly about beating the airport data theft threat. Whether you’re a regular business traveler or gearing up for that big summer trip, Bill offers some great tips to keep in mind.

Airports are a prime location for the loss or theft of laptops; London’s Heathrow airport has up to 900 devices going missing per week, for example. Though some of these laptops may be password-protected or encrypted, data security concerns still exist. And with good reason – the data could be worth far more than the lost device.

Bill offers several pieces of advice, from laptop tracking software such as Computrace to beefing up security policies so that employees understand how to protect their devices against loss or theft. Basic airport security precautions include: not checking your laptop as luggage, using an inconspicuous bag, always watching your bag, adding identification to your bag, and being extra wary when going through security checkpoints. You can read more here.

Some other great reading for you:

• PCI DSS compliance: You can’t just check the boxes
• Survey: 37% of employees would become insiders given the right incentive
• Nine steps to halt data breaches

Image: clipart

Who Breached: Oklahoma Department of Human Services
Number Affected: 1 Million+
Information breached: Social Security Numbers
How: laptop stolen from car

It’s been a while since I’ve done a major highlight of any recent data breaches. They keep happening, to be sure, but the details often start to look the same. However, this one caught my eye from it’s magnitude. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) is notifying more than 1 million residents of the state that their data has been breached as the result of a stolen, unencrypted, laptop.

According to their press release, a password-protected OKDHS laptop was stolen from an employee vehicle (a far too common theft location). The laptop contained names, Social Security Numbers, dates of birth and home addresses for clients who received Medicaid, Child Care assistance, and other program assistance. The laptop was stolen on April 3rd with a press release going out from OKDHS on April 23rd. Letters to affected clients started to go out in the same week.

OKDHS Director Howard H. Hendrick believes the “risk of the data being accessed is low because the computer uses a password protected system,” which is only a very minor security protocol. There’s no guarantee the password was strong and, even with strong password-protection, systems with no additional security precautions pose a high risk for being easily accessed. It is believed that the employee was not violating any policy in place, indicating that the current information security policy does not deal with taking data home or with proper data asset handling.

According to the Security Incident FAQ, OKDHS believes they have “numerous security measures” in place already to ensure client data is safeguarded, but plan to review all policy, procedures and training methods. Let’s hope this sheds some light through the entire organization about how much more can – and should – be done to protect sensitive information.

You can help prevent data breaches such as these, or recover from them more easily, with strong computer security policies, enforcement and training and software such as Computrace from Absolute, which offers many layers of security protection.

Via SC Magazine

The Ponemon Institute, along with Intel, have released the results of a new study about the Cost of a Lost Laptop. The study concluded that the average cost of a lost laptop was nearly $50k, in both tangible and intangible costs.

The study was prompted by an increasingly mobile workforce carrying around more sensitive data on their laptops than ever before. The study focuses on samples of organizations in the US that have experienced laptop loss or theft within the last 12-month period. The 138 cases involved loss by employees, temporary employees and contractors.

Key Highlights from the Study:

• The average value of a lost laptop is $49,246 (replacement cost, detection, forensics, data breach, lost intellectual property costs, lost productivity and legal, consulting and regulatory expenses)
  • The occurrence of a data breach represents 80% of the cost associated with a lost laptop
  • Of the remaining 20% of cost, 59% of that can be attributed to intellectual property loss
• The faster a company realizes of a loss, the lower the average cost associated.
  • If a loss is discovered in the same day, the average cost is $8,950
  • If a loss takes more than 1 week to discover, the average cost rises to $115,849
• Director laptop losses are most costly
  • The average cost of a lost laptop for a senior executive is $28,449, with the highest costs for manager ($60,781) and director ($61,040)
• Encryption saves money, with an average savings of $20,000 for lost laptops with encryption vs those without – but that’s less than half the savings than if you discovered that the laptop went missing the first day it happened
• The cost of a lost laptop varies by industry. The average full cost of a lost laptop is highest for services industry ($112,853) and lowest in manufacturing ($2,184)
•  The average data breach cost of a lost laptop varies by industry. The highest average data breach cost is in the services industry ($108,699) followed by financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical. The other industires were far less.

What the highlights demonstrate is the high cost associated with lost laptops, but also the possibilities for minimizing the damage if companies can identify when laptops are missing quickly. With software such as Computrace by Absolute Software, you can inventory all your mobile computers and devices, know when one is missing and when its stolen get the Absolute Recovery Team to help find it. You can also do a remote data wipe to ensure your lost data does not fall into the wrong hands. And Computrace with Intel Anti-Theft Technology can lock the computer so it can’t even be booted-up. It can easily help reduce the costs of a lost laptop.

Download the White Paper here [PDF]

Also check out Absolute Software’s recent study with the Ponemon Institute: The Human Factor in Laptop Encryption.