A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute showed that close to 637,000 laptops are lost each year and the irony is that most of those units are lost at airport security checkpoints. The survey further states that 65 percent of those laptops are not reclaimed.
I find that mind-boggling, that millions of dollars worth of hardware is lost yearly and the majority of travelers don't bother to get it back! The funny thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. I really wonder how many of these systems eventually turn up on eBay or craigslist (along with critical personal and business data): Wouldn't buying those "found" notebooks be an ID thief's dream?
Many companies are offering all sorts of schemes to help track down those missing laptops, ranging from "IP address phone home services" to integrated GPS reporting. The real irony here is that a few simple things can be done to help recover those laptops and perhaps even prevent "stolen" units from being resold.
Right off the bat, something as simple as a nametag could help. After all, we put nametags on our luggage. Why not use some type of clear epoxy tape (very hard to remove) and affix a business card to the lid or bottom of the laptop? Then, if the laptop gets left at a security checkpoint, perhaps an airport could announce, "Mr. Smith please return to checkpoint."
Another protection laptop manufacturers should consider offering is embedding an owner's name into the bios of the notebook; during boot-up, a message would show on the screen saying, "This notebook belongs to Mrs. Jones -- (555) 555-5555." That information could only be changed with a password or code that comes with the computer in the original packaging and manuals. If the code is lost, then the laptop would need to be sent back to the vendor for reprogramming. A simple protection scheme like that would prevent the majority of stolen/lost notebooks from being resold!