<FONT COLOR=TEAL>:-)LATEST ON LAPTOP--Laptop thieves usually not after data
By Robert Lemos ZDNet News
Laptop thieves are usually after a quick profit, not the valuable data that's on the device, said experts on Monday, the day after the high-profile theft of the CEO of Qualcomm Inc.'s laptop.
"Fortunately, most laptop thefts are to buy drugs, not to sell to competitors overseas," said Lee Curtis, managing director for high technology in the western United States for corporate-intelligence provider Kroll Associates Inc. While laptops can be worth thousands of dollars, the data on the laptops can be valued in the millions, said Curtis. "It's really fortunate that the criminals aren't any more intelligent."
On Sunday, Qualcomm CEO Irwin Jacobs had his laptop stolen off the podium of a hotel conference room where he had just finished giving a talk to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Jacobs had been talking to several members of the organization not 30 feet away when he noticed that the laptop had disappeared, reported the Associated Press on Sunday.
The laptop hardware was valued at around $4,000, according to the report, but contained "proprietary" data that could be valued in the millions.
Qualcomm, well-known for its Eudora e-mail program, has also had a lead role in developing a wireless communications technique known as Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, technology. The wireless technology is on the track toward playing a major role in connecting personal devices to the Internet in the next decade.
Target: Corporate laptops
Yet, Qualcomm could be a target of corporate espionage.
While informal surveys have indicated that one out of every 1,000 laptops are stolen, about 10 percent to 15 percent of those laptops are stolen by criminals intent on selling the data, said William Malik, vice president and information-security research director for market researcher GartnerGroup.
"Some hacker rings have bounties on laptops from certain companies, such as Intel," said Malik, who added that boring laptop bags -- without a spiffy logo or flashy business card -- can go a long way toward reducing targeted laptop theft.
For most thieves, a laptop merely represents a valuable, but light, piece of equipment, he said. "It's the weight of the thing that matters. If it were a diamond, so much the better."
Identity theft possible
Noted identity-theft litigator Mari J. Frank added personal information to the list of worries for the Qualcomm chief.
"If I were this CEO, I would immediately put fraud alerts on my credit reports," she said. Frank has aided both TV network CBS and carmaker General Motors Co. with identity thieves who have stolen personal information from the companies in order to apply for credit in the name of their executives.
"In this day and age, information is currency," she said.
That sentiment has made technologies, such as encryption, all the more valuable as a security measure, said Jim Magdych, security research manager for the PGP security business unit of software maker Network Associates Inc.
"If (Qualcomm) has any proprietary data on the laptop, competitors could use it to get a leg up," he said.
"While Qualcomm can replace the data lost from the backups, preventing others from using that information requires encryption," Magdych said. Several security software makers, including Network Associates Inc., offer such technologies.
Only time will tell whether Jacobs' laptop -- which had no such protections -- will be valued at $4,000 as a computer or possibly $40 million as a Rosetta Stone to decode Qualcomm's business. |
