Cornell Laptop Theft Could Be Identity Fraud Bonanza

What cost simple protection?

As the father of one of the students it beggars belief that there is no mandatory security in place for these faculty laptops.

"the thief might not know the laptop contained anything out of the ordinary. "There is no indication that this is a sophisticated type of operation to steal people's identities," Lewis said. "It appears to be more of a crime of opportunity." Well he certainly knows now

I secured my daughters laptop last year and when it was stolen we were able to recover all the data even though we were unable to recover the laptop http://LaptopCop.atu.ca

Data integrity

It beggars belief that encrypted hard disks and secured VPNs (virtual private networks) are not the standard for laptops carrying customer data.

It's sad to say, but current practices probably won't change until there's a massive lawsuit ...