[ISN] Infosec: Security pros 'ignoring' their own message

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Thu Apr 24 2008 - 01:04:33 PDT


http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2214974/security-ignoring-message

By Ian Williams at Infosec Europe 2008
vnunet.com
23 April 2008

Security professionals at Infosec Europe 2008 are ignoring their own 
message and leaving laptops lying around without locking them down 
securely.

Microsoft's latest security report highlighted that lost equipment now 
accounts for over half of all security problems.

But physical security firm Kensington took a stroll around the show and 
found that only 61 of 315 laptops on exhibitors' stands were locked 
down.

The spot check suggests that, although many exhibitors had locked down 
their monitors, the majority relied on staff to monitor laptop safety.

This is a nearly impossible task, according to Kensington, considering 
the thousands of visitors passing through the venue.

"It is quite a faux pas for these experts in computer and data security 
to neglect the physical security of their laptops, especially at the 
most 'secure' show in Europe," said Bruce Sykes, regional sales director 
at Kensington Northern Europe.

The company performed a similar check at the 2005 show, finding that 70 
per cent of laptops were left unlocked.

Sykes was "flabbergasted" that the problem is worse than it was two 
years ago. "Laptops at a show like this contain very valuable 
information," he said.

"Even if it is a blank machine used just for the show it contains 
company presentations and information provided by potential customers.

"Locks are the first line of defence in preventing data theft and are an 
inexpensive deterrent that should be considered part of any data 
security strategy."


_______________________________________________      
Subscribe to the InfoSec News RSS Feed
http://www.infosecnews.org/isn.rss



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu Apr 24 2008 - 01:19:17 PDT