Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . Highly visible recent events, notably an incident earlier this year in which a State Department laptop disappeared with important top secrets, and the flight this weekend of a Qualcomm exec's PC, have cast light on the problem.
Managers know, too, that airport laptop thefts are far from uncommon.
Experts say the problem is a big one. The Computer Security Institute, a membership organization composed of computer and network security professionals, estimates that 57 percent of firms suffered losses from laptop theft in 1999. Only virus attacks are a more prevalent security problem, according to the institute. And insurance industry estimates reveal that an estimated 319,000 laptops were stolen in the US last year. Naturally, technologists are at work on ways to stop laptop flight.