CNET is running an article about a study that Symantec did, that estimates just how much a laptop is worth, when you factor in the data stored on the laptop:
A report released Friday by security-software company Symantec suggests that an ordinary notebook holds content valued at 550,000 pounds ($972,000), and that some could store as much as 5 million pounds–or $8.8 million–in commercially sensitive data and intellectual property.
“It’s alarming that executives have mobile devices containing data of such financial value and that very little is being done to protect the information on them,” said Lindsey Armstrong, a vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Symantec.
Granted, it’s a software security company releasing this report and so some of you may question it, but take a look at what’s stored on your laptop, and you might be surprised. Even if it’s for personal use, you probably have a lot of information stored that would be hard to recreate if something happened (not just theft, but perhaps an accident). This could lead to a big push for more and more manufacturers to include fingerprint readers or other similar measures. IBM and now Lenovo have had incredibly strong harddrive passwords for years now, and adding fingerprint readers and other measures will help a great deal.