We all know about hard drive crashes and theft, but the following article that appeared a couple of months ago in Techworld totally blew me away. I'm not completely surprised by the spilled food statistic (I remember one of my kids giving me her "dead" laptop. "Zoe, why does your laptop smell like beer?"), but the rage thing was news to me.

One in ten portables downed by 'laptop rage'

Paul Boutin, The Industry Standard20 April 2009

“

A significant portion of damage to laptops is caused by the "anger or frustration" that employees take out on them, a study has found.

That is one of the findings of a new study entitled "Business Risk of a Lost Laptop." It was published last Wednesday by the Ponemon Institute and is funded by Dell, which is using the study to tout its data encryption and recovery solutions.

The report, described by Ponemon as a web-based survey of 3,100 IT and security practitioners located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Mexico and Brazil, found that laptop-smashing employees were cited as the leading cause of damage by one in three respondents in Mexico and Brazil.

The Brits are more reserved: Only 6 percent of UK respondents blamed angry staff. Instead, travel-related damage caused by not taking proper care of the laptop leads among the British, with just over half of UK respondents claiming it was the most common cause of damage.

Americans rate laptop rage and mishandling on the road fairly low - 13 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Instead, 34 percent of American IT pros told Ponemon that "spilling food or liquids on the laptop" is the top cause of damage. But before you roll your eyes at ugly Americans, take note: An even higher 36 percent voted food spills the top problem among the French."

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

As reported by By Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post Staff Writer, on Friday, August 1, 2008, Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. An increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined.

Personally, I'd be pretty bent out of shape if Homeland Security took my laptop the next time I came through customs. But apparently this is happening with increasing frequency and with no explanation and no requirement that it be returned in any reasonable period of time. Putting civil liberties and privacy issues aside, I've got a lot of valuable stuff on my laptop that I need for my business, not to mention family pictures and all the music I love to listen to while traveling. Plus, I'd have to go out and get a new laptop because I couldn't be sure when I'd be getting the other one back – that would set me back $1500, not including the software that I've purchased.

So a word of caution for anyone traveling outside the US – back up your PC online. If you have Carbonite and you open your laptop in the Hong Kong airport, Carbonite will automatically back up the work you've been doing while you're on the road. At least then you can be back in business quickly if your computer gets taken by our government on your return.

And if you're really worried about the privacy of your files, encrypt them on your laptop (I wonder if they can force you to give them the key?) and when signing up for Carbonite, choose to keep your own encryption key. That way, if they come to us with a court order, all we'll be able to turn over are your encrypted files. With the kind of encryption we use, these would be pretty useless without a huge effort. (But, if you choose to manage your own key, don't lose it, because there's no way to get your files back without it.)

Me personally, I'm going to write to my representatives. I don't like the idea that the government can go on a fishing expedition on a US citizen without probable cause. It's chilling!

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite