The importance of protecting your business from your users

People think Im joking when I say to them that they need to protect the users from themselves.

A couple of weeks ago I was travelling through Seattle and while waiting in the lounge there I saw this sad situation. Yes its an abandoned laptop. Its owner has taken off upstairs for a drink - unfortunately he also left his screen unlocked for anyone to access. Want a turn anyone?? :)

Unfortunately its something that's all too common - laptops abandoned in airports and public places.

What can you do to prevent this?

1. EDUCATE YOUR USERS! I've said it before. Nothing replaces a good user education. They need to be told just how serious it is to leave a machine like this and what the data theft implications are aside from physical theft of the machine itself. (Note: BitLocker cant protect the user in this situation)

2. Reinforce through policy. How many years has screensaver timeout policy been in the product? Set a reasonable screen save timeout that forces them to logon again once it activates. Its just good layered security that minimises (though doesn't eliminate) risk.

Any of you have good stories to share on this? :)