While the article suggests $16 million in losses for unauthorized access and theft for 2006, the actual amount is likely much greater since many violations go unreported. A single violation could easily result in losses of this magnitude when the loss is associated with confidential data from a Fortune 500 company.
While some IT managers circumnavigate this problem by simply isolating critical data and prohibit it from being transferred to mobil devices, this is not a practical solution in todays mobile society.
I protect sensitive information using EncFS, a Linux encrypted virtual file system. EncFS requires a typed password to decrypt (on the fly) certain folders on my laptop. While effective, it is cumbersome and more prone to being compromised than a biometric solution, as found on the Lenovo laptop. With out a doubt this type of technology will be increasingly adopted by IT professionals that need to secure sensitive data.
Lenovo today announced the first ThinkPad notebooks using security technologies from Utimaco that enable people to fully encrypt the contents of their hard drive with a single swipe of their finger. Lenovo also announced improvements in wireless connectivity and processing performance such as 802.11n technology and the Intel Core2Duo processor to the ThinkPad line, and a new relationship with Softex to provide a comprehensive new authentication management tool.
Lenovo worked with Utimaco to integrate and offer SafeGuard Easy 4.30, a software program that encrypts information on the hard drive with the single swipe of a fingerprint reader on select ThinkPad notebooks. Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks are the first to offer this rock-solid, layered security solution, which currently provides one of the highest levels of data protection available on mobile PCs.
According to the Computer Security Institute/FBI's 2006 Computer Crime and Security Survey, unauthorized PC access and theft cost companies more than $16 million in losses in 2006. For the past several years, unauthorized PC access and theft have been leading causes of financial loss among IT users.
