Today 60% of American workers are categorized at “mobile”, meaning a majority of us travel for work and work in non-traditional locations. Millions of us use our smart-phone’s, blackberry’s and laptop’s at coffee shops, airports, hotels, parks, in the car or in the home office each day.

With this freedom and mobility brings the risk of theft. Over 600,000 computers get stolen each year and less than 3 percent of these cases get resolved. Considering how much sensitive information we carry on our laptops, you’d think laptop security would be a bigger priority at the point of purchase.

Symantec research suggests that an ordinary notebook holds content valued at $972,000, and that some notebooks could have $8.8 million--in commercially sensitive data and intellectual property.

Here are just a few examples of security breaches (from stolen laptops) over the last two years:

i) Department of Veteran Affairs exposed the records of an estimated 28.6 million U.S. military veterans.
ii) Fidelity Investments, 196,000 client records went astray.
iii) Mount St. Mary's Hospital in upstate New York lost 17,000 patient records
v) Hotels.com, a subsidiary of Expedia, lost the records of 250,000 customers entrusted to Ernst & Young.
vi) The Florida state Department of Transportation experienced two device thefts in one week in July--one of them from a state-owned vehicle while a DOT agent ate lunch inside a restaurant. The device included the Social Security numbers of 133,000 Floridians.
vii) Boeing Company, lost the names and SSN of 382,000 workers and retirees

So what can a company or individual do to protect themselves against becoming a victim of laptop theft?  Kensington Technology Group invented what’s called the Kensington Security Slot, now part of at least 95% of laptops sold today.  The security slot is the small 3mm oval slot that is located on the side or back of these laptops.  This security slot is specifically designed to accept the Kensington Microsaver or Combosaver Security Cables.  These security cables are patented and include a locking bolt that connects directly into the security slot and a 6ft. long cable made of aircraft grade steel with a hardened carbon fiber core.  These features make it extremely difficult to defeat.

These security cables come in a variety of styles from heavy duty to smaller and more mobile but all work in basically the same way.  You loop the end around something large or immobile and connect the locking bolt into the security slot.  This is extremely handy when you find yourself in situations when you have to leave your laptop unattended.  Whether you’re a student in the library, leaving your laptop in the car or you find yourself in a coffee shop and need to use the restroom.  Most theft is opportunistic and the very fact that you’ve created a deterrent will alleviate most instances where your laptop is at risk.

A bonus point is that this security slot is now also found in most lcd projectors, lcd monitors and quite a few external hard-drives.  The very same locks can now be used to secure all these devices whether they’re in the office or at home.