Laptops the "Final Frontier" of Data Protection

A new survey is suggesting that most companies tend to ignore laptops when it comes to data protection, and they may be missing a critical part of IT security.

In an article on the Computer Technology Review website, contributor Brent Ashton says most IT managers have dealt with lost, stolen or crashed laptops many times. "And, in most cases, the results are usually the same: Lost data, lost time, lost money—and employees losing their minds with frustration," Ashton says.

Ashton says the survey by Imation Corp polled more than 200 IT directors and network storage managers of small- to mid-size businesses. While most of the organizations said laptops were pervasive in their organizations, less than half of the companies surveyed "have formal procedures in place for backing up mission-critical data hosted on laptop computers," Ashton says. "And for those companies that have formal backup procedures for their laptop users, much of the responsibility for performing the backups falls on the users themselves," he adds.

The survey also found that "despite the growing number of laptop users and the high-rates of theft and failure associated with laptop use, laptop backup does not yet appear to have risen to the top ranks of IT managers' concerns," Ashton says.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=478&Itemid=44