Reply From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdysonat_private> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > While in a waiting area in the Los Angeles airport, a local executive > felt the need to powder his nose. So he got up and headed off for the > restroom -- leaving his laptop computer open and running on the > waiting-area seat. When he returned, the laptop -- and all of its > confidential, unprotected files -- were gone. A few things need to be said about such an incident: 1. I believe this "incident" is fiction. Leaving a several-thousand-dollar piece of equipment unattended requires a caliber of stupidity that even the most Dilbertesque executives are incapable of possessing. Would anyone leave a wallet containing $3000 lying on an airport waiting-area seat? No? Then what makes this alleged "incident" so credible? 2. Unattended items are *routinely* confiscated by law enforcement officials in airports. As I do a fair amount of air travel, I know for a fact that unattended luggage is considered suspect and subject to immediate impound. No ifs, ands or buts. Ask any law officer at any given airline terminal. And hey, I'm just a worker-bee who travels on a fairly regular basis. Surely an "executive" who travels far more frequently knows this simple truth. 3. Speaking from experience, one's laptop is MUCH more likely to be stolen not while one is "powdering one's nose" and stupidly leaving a laptop out on a chair. Your laptop runs the greatest risk of being stolen RIGHT AFTER IT IS X-RAYED BY AIRPORT SECURITY. Several advisories have already been issued on the scam that has occurred across countless international airports. In such a scam, the mark sets his laptop on the conveyor belt and then the thief and his accomplice move in. The thief snags the laptop while the accomplice, who is in line immediately ahead of the mark, slows the mark's progress through the metal-detector gate by repeated tripping the sensors. Of course, the mark can't go through until the person ahead of him passes the gate test. By that time, the mark's laptop and the thief are long gone. So please, if we're going to cite risks, let's at least make them REAL risks. The situation in my third point is far more likely than the unfathomably stupid actions as recounted in the opening paragraph of this article. - -Jay ( ______ )) .-- "There's always time for a good cup of coffee." --. >===<--. C|~~| (>-- Jay D. Dyson -- jdysonat_private --<) | = |-' `--' `-- As a matter of fact, I *am* a rocket scientist. --' `-----' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNsPLTrl5qZylQQm1AQFw8gQArEDCRTBWAzkwZaCOTvAQC5+uVwnICp02 zKlsHM2zfPoT8Jh2o8QRfgrZtzP4vqmO03+ydfB+8XU+j9TjM4GGAEIbqOLdZj1E FdGRHoa9oZqRQz0C9I03gqZskzkgNe5fpa/9ZzcYznank/4UnkmusOVe3IliGyN8 0tXTx0ftetw= =jSFt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Internet Security Institute [www.isi-sec.com]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:18:49 PDT