However, the impact of losing a personal data store or information systems is not often considered to be a business continuity issue. A stolen laptop computer places proprietary client data in the hands of unknown parties, jeopardizing a valued relationship and opening the company to legal action. An employee's resignation places his personal computer into the hands of a supervisor who reassigns the machine without removing files, causing the loss of months of sales leads, proposals, and contract details. A work group shares files over the corporate intranet, where they are copied by a disgruntled employee and e-mailed to the press, resulting in significant internal conflict and public embarrassment. An employee whose machine is not equipped with updated virus detection software introduces an infected document onto the machines of the entire sales force, resulting in costly down time for sales and technical staff to inoculate and disinfect machines.
Personal computers demand personal responsibility for information technology management.
Many of the above business issues could be mitigated to a great extent through centralized or professional information technology management techniques. However, the scale of these issues is immense when one considers the number of people, the locations, travel, and other factors that drive the complexity of issues and responses. There is, however a short list of information technology implications that can be addressed to limit exposure. Provide education, policy, and means for backup, archive and recovery of personal computer-based data and systems. For laptop machines, provide hard drive encryption software and encourage the use of removable hard drives that can be encrypted and packed separately.