hotrodlincoln
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 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: New Dell Services Help Users Hunt Down Missing Laptops |
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BY PATRICK SEITZ
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 6/30/2008
Dell released its first suite of security services for notebook PCs on Monday, including the ability to track missing or stolen laptops and even to remotely delete sensitive data on them.
The PC maker is offering its Dell ProSupport Mobility Services in response to growing customer concerns about protecting data on laptops, says Chris Ratcliffe, director of global services at Dell.
"When your laptop's at risk, your data's at risk. And when your data's at risk, your company and your customers are being put at risk," Ratcliffe said.
The growing use of notebook PCs and the increasingly mobile work force carry significant risks for corporations, government agencies and other enterprises, he says.
A study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Dell found that 12,000 laptops are lost in U.S. airports each week, and two-thirds are never returned.
Airports are a prime location for lost and stolen notebook PCs because business travelers are often in a hurry, carry many items and are distracted during security checkpoints.
"When you think about one laptop like the Veterans Affairs case study that caused something like 26.5 million veterans' records to be exposed, 12,000 (laptops lost) in a week is just staggering," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. That theft occurred in 2006, but is far from an isolated incident.
The Ponemon Institute study found that 53% of mobile professionals carry confidential company information on their notebook PCs, and of those, 65% don't take steps to protect the data.
The sensitive data can include customer information, confidential business information and intellectual property such as software code and product renderings.
Dell's new notebook computer security services are part of its theme of making information technology simple for customers.
The services could help Dell's bottom line, says Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. As profit shrinks on hardware, Dell can make up for it by selling add-on services, Kay says.
Other PC makers offer notebook security services, but Dell's might be the most complete offering, Kay says. He says Dell is reselling third-party services such as Computrace LoJack for Laptops, from Absolute Software.
Dell's new notebook PC services include laptop tracking and recovery, remote data delete, hard-drive data recovery, certified data destruction, extended battery service and accidental damage service.
The new services add to Dell's ProSupport portfolio, introduced in February. The services are available to customers in the U.S. and Canada through Dell sales representatives and registered resellers. They are slated to be available in Latin America, Europe and Asia in July and August.
Dell's Ratcliffe calls the new mobile services "OnStar for your laptop." Dell plans to promote the services to large and small enterprises.
"This is as useful for the one-man architect as it is for a company like Dell or GE or GM, or anyone else who has literally thousands of laptops in the field," Ratcliffe said.
He says Dell's laptop tracking and recovery service costs $69 for three years. Add in the remote data delete service and it's $99.
In addition to the Dell ProSupport Mobility Services, Dell laptops are available with advanced security features such as full disk encryption hard drives, integrated smart cards and fingerprint readers.
Dell's notebook services can provide a safety net for customers. The Ponemon study found that many business travelers don't back up their data or use encryption.
"They're not doing the basic blocking and tackling from a security perspective that you'd think they should be doing, given that we're dealing with information that may be the crown jewels of the company," Ponemon said. "It is a big problem."
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http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20080630 |
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