I stumbled upon this study today commissioned by Intel and executed by Ponemon. They key findings were:

• The average value of a lost laptop is $49,246. This value is based on seven cost components: replacement cost, detection, forensics, data breach, lost intellectual property costs, lost productivity and legal, consulting and regulatory expenses.
• What makes a lost laptop costly to a company is the potential for a data breach to occur. In the cases we studied, the occurrence of a data breach represents 80% of the cost.
• The second highest cost component is attributed to intellectual property loss. When the cost of a data breach is removed, intellectual property loss represents 59% of the total cost.
• The faster the company learns that a laptop is lost, the lower the average cost. If a company discovers the loss in the same day, the average cost is $8,950. If it takes more than one week, the average cost rises significantly to approximately $115,849.
• Lost productivity is not a significant cost to companies. When employees have down time due to losing their laptops, it represents only 1% of the total cost.
• While lost laptop costs appear to be correlated to position in an organization, the most senior level respondents do not experience the highest average cost. The average cost of a lost laptop for a senior executive is $28,449 and the highest average costs are for manager and director, $60,781 and $61,040 respectively.

So, protecting the information on your Laptop is fundamental and could significantly reduce the cost of a stolen Laptop – say: Switch on Bitlocker…

The whole study can be found here: Cost of a Lost Laptop: A Study Conducted by the Ponemon Institute

Roger