It seems there’s a new headline almost every day: Computers stolen. Data lost. Customers’ security at risk.

There’s a surprising amount of data out there that is vulnerable to theft, partly because companies still fail to adequately secure data on laptops.

Birds, bees and identity theft

It’s gotten so bad that consumers now regard data theft as an inevitable fact of life, according to a survey conducted in July.

The same survey said 70 percent of respondents think it would be more risky to trust a company with their Social Security number than it would be to carry the card in their wallet.

Unsafe practices

The astonishing thing is that people are not moving to secure data, either on personal devices or work-issued laptops.

But you can be smarter than them — by installing monitoring software.

Monitoring software can keep track of:

• The location of the device
• Whether data has been uploaded or downloaded
• Whether a USB device has been installed
• What websites have been accessed

The wisdom of installing such software is shown in the case of a recent laptop theft from an Ohio manufacturing company.

A worker left a laptop on an airplane, and it was never recovered. The laptop contained Social Security numbers and other personal information.

However, the laptop has software installed on it that shows the computer hasn’t been turned on and the data hasn’t been accessed.

“To date, the company has received no information suggesting that any unauthorized person obtained the laptop or was able to access the data.” — Tremco

That software lends added peace of mind to the company and to the people whose data was on that computer.

For information on monitoring software, go to the Digital Endpoint website.