Airports – a great place to lose a laptop

2008-08-01

Around 900 laptops are lost every week at London’s Heathrow airport. In a report commissioned by laptop maker Dell conducted by the Ponemon Institute, figures revealed that Heathrow tops the table in terms of misplaced, lost and stolen laptops – followed by Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports.

Apparently, in the eight largest airports in the EMEA region more than 3,300 laptops are either lost or go missing EVERY week.  Of those laptops which end up in lost and found departments 57 per cent are never reclaimed.

The research also revealed that 42 per cent of business travellers don't have back up for data on their laptops, while 55 per cent said they haven't taken steps to protect it.

The report was commissioned to coincide with a number of new data protection services launched by Dell, but here at aph.com we would recommend a few simple steps to ensure if you do lose your laptop at an airport, you stand a good chance of getting it back – intact:

- Back up important data – now. Online storage is a good idea if you are a frequent traveller, as then you have a virtual back up available 24/7 without the need of carrying any heavy or easily lost external storage devices

- Mark your laptop with a security marker – your postcode is unique and can be read by airport security staff under a special UV light

- Give yourself plenty of time to get through check-in, passport control, customs and security. Often, Laptops are lost simply because travellers are rushing

- Carry your work on an external storage device and hire a computer at your destination.