National Survey Reveals Laptop Data at Risk

Of organizations relying on an extensive network of laptops, 50 percent of small-to-mid-sized organizations do not have formal procedures in place for backing up "mission-critical" data hosted on employee laptops, leaving them vulnerable to potential data loss. And it's not just laptop data at risk. While 90 percent of these organizations are operating today with a formal data backup and storage strategy in place, less than half (32 percent) of these companies perform regularly scheduled testing and evaluation of their backup policies and procedures on a minimal basis of once per quarter. These are just some of the findings of a national data protection survey, sponsored by Imation Corp which polled 200 IT directors and network storage managers of small-to-mid-sized companies on their perception of data protection practices and challenges. Key findings include:

• E-mail viruses have had the most profound effect on data backup procedures and are the number one reason companies review and change their data protection procedures.
• Regular testing of disaster recovery procedures are not yet a common practice -- despite increasing concerns of IT managers.

Laptops represent one of the most overlooked backdoor risks to data backup and security for small-to-mid-sized businesses. The survey uncovered that 40 percent of these companies operate with an extensive network of laptop computers, yet only 49 percent of these companies have a formal data protection plan for their employee's laptops. Furthermore, more than half (57 percent) of these companies hold the individual employee responsible for uploading their data onto the company server. The survey also found that less than one-third (29 percent) of these companies use software to backup changed files to a corporate network.

"Protecting the data hosted on laptops traditionally has not been a concern of IT departments. Their role has been to maintain and protect a company's servers and systems," said Brent Ashton, Imation's marketing manager for small and mid-sized businesses. "The IT department won't miss a backup window due to a lost laptop or hard drive failure, but as the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, more and more 'mission-critical' information, such as customer records, sales presentations and company financials, is being stored on laptops putting data at potential risk of loss."