Thin Client Technology, Laptops and Identity Theft
By John Young

The Laptop Theft Epidemic

Possibly one of the most terrifying thefts that can happen to you is the theft of your laptop. Whether it’s your own personal computer, or a company computer you’ve taken along on a business trip, your laptop holds unaccountable information that probably you yourself don’t even know is there. A lot of information is in the form of passwords and web url’s that give a thief access to anything from your bank account numbers to your credit card statements, Federal and State tax forms, and that Holy Grail of all Holy Grails — your Social Security Number. Data on your computer is, of course, fully accessible to the thief.

According to Laptop Theft Resources, 20% of Data Breaches in 2008 were due to laptop theft.

Beyond the personal nightmare

But beyond the personal nightmare of having your own identity stolen comes information about your clients, either of your personal business or the company you may be working for. Recent horror stories include stolen laptops from insurance companies that keep the personal data of 10’s of thousands of clients. These have been stolen from employees who took the computer out of the office to do some work at home.

It’s estimated that an ordinary notebook contains $972,000 dollars worth of sensitive information and some could store over eight million dollars. Theft of a laptop makes up over 54% of all Identity Theft incidents and since 2005, there have been more than 150 million data breaches resulting in Identity Theft (Absolute Software). Yet, there seems to be an unaccountable apathy toward laptop theft. Starbucks, for example, reported in 2008 a theft that involved 97000 unencrypted records, social security numbers, and passwords but according to Laptop Theft Resources, media response was minimal, and the public seemed uninterested.

The Thin Client Solution to Identity Theft

By placing the lion’s share of information on a remote server and gaining access to it by strongly encrypted passwords, a thin client laptop effectively puts all the information processed by it out of the ID thief’s reach. The theft of a laptop would then involve only the hardware involved, and since a thin client’s value is only $500 – $600 (or less) this represents a much lower loss than a fully equipped laptop which can run well over $2000. And with modern theft recovery services such as LOJACK, the thin client can be easily recovered.

So why isn’t there a high demand for thin client laptops?

Little Demand for Thin Client Laptops?

So far, consideration of thin client technology has been pretty much limited to the Corporation. Consumers seem to have little demand for it. Several reasons might account for this: 1) Consumers want all of their software, data, and storage under their direct control. 2)The infrastructure is not yet fully developed. Google is working on the back end services necessary for thin client solutions. 3)The “airplane solution” has not yet been fully worked out. This solution would enable you to work on your data in places where access to the Internet is not available. 4) Wireless networks need to improve in band width and security. 5) Security of the remote servers and databases would have to be absolute and not hackable. Hacking into remote systems would be far more devastating than the theft of a single laptop. Instead of exposing 96000 people to Identity Theft, conceivably 100 million could be exposed once the system becomes universally accepted.

Is There a Future for Thin Client Notebooks?

Perhaps, though, the main hindrance to consumer acceptance of thin client laptops is apathy toward Identity Theft. In spite of the daily horror stories appearing in newspapers and on the Internet, we seem to cling to the attitude that “it happened to the other guy but it can’t happen to me”. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but until we as consumers really face the fact that any one of us can become victims at any time, we won’t really be willing to overcome our aversion to complete control, and possession, of all of our data on our personal computers.

Data can be made absolutely secure on a remote server; we have the technology for that. With that in mind, it becomes obvious that thin client laptops are the ultimate answer to laptop Identity Theft. But will we all someday be processing our data remotely, when a laptop theft involves the theft of hardware only? Will that day come?

It depends… It depends on you and me, and whether we are willing to take the step to the new paradigm of having our data and processing power located on a remote computer, not in our direct possession. We need first to recognize that Identity Theft is a horror that can indeed happen to us, and make whatever changes are necessary to prevent it. Secondly, we need to realize that the data we think is under our control can easily fall into the hands of a thief and will NO LONGER be in our possession.

Then we will be ready for “thin client” laptops.

Your Identity Stolen (http://www.youridentitystolen.com) is an online magazine devoted to publishing articles on Identity Theft and to provide information and resources for those who may have fallen victim to this crime epidemic.

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If you have some smaller children, especially once they get to the age when they first start crawling and walking around, there are some definite home safety awareness things you should be looking at. These can include all sorts of things, from gates, to plug protectors, and child safety locks. All of these things need to be done in conjunction to make a truly safe house.

The gates are some pretty simple things you can do right away. If you have stairs, than this is a definite must. The last thing you can afford to have happen is your child fall down the steps. I had this happen to me when my child go to the last step while crawling up (it was only like 4 steps), and as he stood up, he fell backwards. He was OK, but man is it a scary thing.

Another quick thing you can do is to place all of your chemicals in a high location. This would be anything you might use to clean with. The will eliminate the chance for any curious child to get a hold of something extremely dangerous.

Electric outlet plugs are also a must. Since kids think anything with a hold in it should have something jammed into it, like a finger, this will keep them safe. And, just walk around and look and see what else they might be able to get in that hole. The awareness is what should be looked at. Sometimes we just don’t see things at first glance.

I also had an instance where my kid dropped a penny behind the night light, while it was plugged in. Imagine the look on his face when there was a big flash and he shorted the electricity across the terminals of the night light. There are just things like that you should be looking for.

We walk through our house often, just to ensure we have stuff taken care of. We make sure things are out of reach if need be, or at least we discuss and educate the kids on what can happen if they mess with any of the items we talk about. Overall, cross our fingers, we have been pretty luck so far. But, it is mainly because we have raised our home safety awareness.

Home safety awareness is something we can all improve upon. Your child is one of the most important things in your life, so take some time and make sure they are safe.

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