24.08.2006 - “Laptops, USB flashdrives, phones and BlackBerrys are holding information that runs companies,” says Frank Hannigan (pictured). “That information is not just about their own company; it’s about a client’s. There are examples in the US where companies have sued for billions of dollars because their personal advisors have allowed their database of customers into the public domain,” he adds.

Getting this information back to the owner is the business that Hannigan is in. He is managing director of the Cork-based Yougetitback.com, a new lost-and-found service which aims to make it easy for good Samaritans to return found items to their owner if it happens to have a Yougetitback.com tag on it.

Hannigan says that because we’ve moved away from a manufacturing economy to a more ideas-based economy, new problems have emerged for companies. Having a laptop stolen from the backseat of a car or carelessly leaving it behind on a bus or in a café can mean vital information gets into the wrong hands, costing the company thousands not just in replacing the machine but in lost productivity or the loss of entire projects.

Losses outweigh thefts by 10 to one, according to Hannigan. He refers to a report from Gartner which says conservatively that productivity loss on one laptop with data is US$2,500. He estimates that for a partner in a large firm or a solicitor in Ireland, for example, the productivity loss is several times that. “You’re talking about companies going under if this information goes public or they lose the information,” Hannigan warns.

It can be difficult for a garda to track down the owner of a pin-locked unmarked mobile phone or password-only laptop, which is where Yougetitback.com comes into the equations. Hannigan explains how it works: “You get a security tag, you attach that to the asset you want to protect and then you go onto our website or phone us to register the unique reference number [found on the tag]. You then put in your personal details and details of the asset you’re going to protect with our security tag.”

If a person leaves their mobile phone behind in a pub and it is found by a member of staff, that person can ring up and give the freephone number on the tag. Yougetitback.com then calls the person who has lost their mobile and tells them of its whereabouts. They can collect it themselves or get it delivered to them. The good Samaritan receives €20 in tokens for Yougetitback.com products.

Yougetitback.com is developing electronic security tags that sit on the screens of laptops and basically any device that’s IP-enabled, which would include most phones. “We’ve built a security stack behind that. If it is flagged that the item is lost or stolen a large screen comes up on the device which reads: ‘You are using a device that has been lost or stolen, ring this number immediately to get it back to its owner.’ What we’ve done in the background is we can collect the IP address which could allow ISPs to help police find lost items.

Another company working in the same arena is Bray-based computer security software company Stealth Shield. James Kavanagh, sales director, says that considering a laptop is often an individual’s most prized possession it seems sensible to secure it.

One of the products offered by the company is ComputracePlus, software that helps gardai find a stolen computer once it connects to the internet. “The software simply sits on the laptop, undetectable, and when you report it stolen it is tracked over the internet and gardai, by law, must attempt to retrieve it. In our experience you’ll have your laptop back within 60 days,” says Kavanagh.

“The laptop is usually stolen without the power pack and it’s been proven that within 20 days they usually get a power pack and it goes online,” says Kavanagh. He says that companies seem to be coming around to the fact they need to do something about lost or stolen laptops. One is stolen every 53 seconds worldwide.

He warns that Irish companies don’t seem to realise how much sensitive information is being carried around on laptops or USB memory sticks. In addition, he says companies are spending a lot of money on spyware and antivirus software but aren’t thinking about it getting stolen. If a laptop is stolen, he says, companies will probably only get it back if it is tracked and traced.

Kavanagh notes that some firms will put the software on company computers and tell everyone, which deters theft because people know that the computer can be traced; a high percentage of thefts tend to be inside jobs. Kavanagh comments that if a laptop is stolen from right outside a person’s office it could be for specific information it may hold whereas if it’s stolen from the back seat of a car it’s just for selling it on. “There is a data-delete option where if you have very sensitive data you can ask that as soon as it connects [to the internet] you want it wiped,” he adds.

Instead of waiting for a machine to be returned or traced, there is another way a company can ensure they can access the vital information it may hold. Savenet Backup is a piece of software that, when installed, backs up specific files at specific times via the internet: it automatically selects and encrypts the selected files and automatically dials up to the internet to transfer the data to its secure storage facility. If a PC was stolen, the company or individual can restore the data through a secure webpage to any PC or laptop anywhere in the world, so you can access your critical files immediately and carry on working, explains Susan Dixon, a director of Savenet Solutions.

Dixon believes that not enough companies are performing regular offsite backups. According to the Central Statistics Office 2004 Information Society Statistics Survey, 62pc of enterprises do not have an offsite data backup. “They have to start asking themselves what they would do if overnight they lost all their accounting data, email accounts and their important client information. How would it affect their business and would they be able to recover?”

Useful resources to help avert a crisis when your laptop is lost or stolen

www.yougetitback.com
The site favoured by good Samaritans, this site is the first point of contact for those who want to put tags on their portable assets or for those who want to track down the owner of a tagged mobile or laptop they came across in the urban jungle.

www.stealthshield.ie
Revealing valuable nuggets such as 97pc of stolen computers are never recovered, this site goes into detail about how Computrace could help track down your laptop if it is swiped.

www.savenetsolutions.ie
Unplugged from the corporate network, laptops can be a liability, the site says as it goes into describes its backup product, Savenet Backup.

www.kevincoffee.com/laptop/laptop_theft_know_before_you_go.htm
A guide to why criminals steal laptops and what they do with them with a few tips on how to recover your laptop.

All you can leave behind

Not every businessperson is as lucky as U2 frontman Bono. When in 1999 his laptop containing all the lyrics for U2’s new album (ironically called All That You Can’t Leave Behind) was stolen from his car in Dublin, it could have been bad for business.
It could have resulted in fans turning against the band by having to wait longer for an album, it could have affected business deals or touring and of course it could have cost the band lots of money in interest in their bank accounts if a new album was delayed. However, lucky for Bono and U2 fans worldwide, the laptop was returned by a young man who had bought it from what he thought was reputable source for IR£300. Last year Dublin band The Thrills had their laptop stolen from a car with all their new material on it.
However, while leaving a laptop in the backseat of a car may sound like you’re asking for it to be stolen, there have been a number of other high-profile thefts and losses of laptops which had more than a few lyrics on them. Large and small organisations alike across the world have made the news because of lost and stolen laptops containing personal details of clients, customers and employees. In the UK earlier this year an Ernst & Young laptop, again stolen from the back of a car, contained personal details of IBM employees, including their social security numbers.
Train stations are also a popular place for laptops to go walkabout as an MI5 agent found when a laptop containing top-secret data went missing. After-work drinks can also lead to laptop loss and the loss of vital information, as a drunken MI6 officer realised after leaving a laptop in the back of a taxi in London.

ELAINE LARKIN

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