Heathrow Airport is laptop crime capital

RISKY : Heathrow Airport is laptop crime capital

Nearly 1,000 laptops go missing at Heathrow Airport every week, according to new research.

Charles Starmer-Smith

01 Aug 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/2482615/Heathrow-Airport-is-laptop-crime-capital.html

A traveller is more likely to lose a laptop computer at Heathrow than at any other major European airport, according to new research.

In a year, about 800,000 laptops are lost or stolen at airports throughout the world. But 900 go missing at Heathrow every week, according to research for the technology company Dell.

Ponemon Institute, a privacy management company, surveyed 5,000 travellers, baggage handlers and security staff at 113 airports in Europe and the United States.

It found Heathrow to be the worst performing of Europe's airports, although - with 68 million passengers passing through its terminals each year - it is also the busiest.

About 3,800 computers go missing each week from Europe's 24 busiest airports, with more than half never retrieved.

Amsterdam Schiphol, with 750 laptops lost, Paris Charles De Gaulle (733) and Gatwick (385) were the next worst performers.

In the US, about 12,000 laptops are lost or stolen each week, with 10 per cent of these disappearing at Los Angeles.

The survey found that many travellers fail to take any steps to protect the information contained on their laptops. Nearly 60 per cent of the British admitted that they did not protect confidential information, while more than half said that they did not back up data.

According to the research, most laptops are lost at the departure gates or airport lounges, although 42 per cent of British travellers said that their computer went missing after they asked another passenger to keep an eye on it.

Mike Cobb, a security expert at the Ponemon Institute, said: "One of the quick and easy things travellers can do is put their name and contact number on the outside of their laptop.

"Also, they can back up their data - personal or sensitive data should be encrypted. It's not an arduous task."