I recently read the results of a Ponemon Institute study which indicated that the average cost of a lost laptop was almost $50,000.
The cost was broken down into seven main drivers:
- Laptop replacement cost including purchase price and related overheads
- Detection and escalation cost from searching and reporting to requisitioning a new machine
- Lost productivity cost of employee being unable to work as planned.
- Forensics and investigation cost of tracing laptop to figuring out what data was lost.
- Data breach cost: This is really expensive. According to Ponemon, it costs about $ 200 to remedy the loss of a single customer record. An average laptop may contain 200 customer records, giving a total of $40,000 per laptop. The worst cited in the Penemon survey was about 6,200 records, resulting in data breach costs of almost $ 1 million. Typically there won’t be a large volume of customer data on laptops, but just a few records could make a single laptop loss very expensive.
- Intellectual property loss: Especially for firms in technology, healthcare, and communications businesses, the potential cost is incalculable.
- Other legal or regulatory costs: Legal fees can be expensive, particularly in cases of data breach or intellectual property theft.
Ponemon did note that the cost does vary by industry with the top four industries with the highest average cost of a lost laptop being services, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical.
Of note was the cost is lower the sooner the breadth is discovered. A same-day discovery may cost $8950, while one not discovered for a week may cost $115,000.
With tools such as C Infinity Connected online backup for PCs and C Infinity Data Defense encryption management service, the loss can be mitigated. C Infinity Data Defense can wipe the data or delete the encryption key as well as help track the PC. C Infinity Connected online backup and restore can recover the data securely.
For more information on how to prevent embarrassing and costly data loss please call us on 353 1 4434666
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