The original study stated that roughly 1 200 laptops were lost, missing or stolen each week at airports and included the exceptionally scary statistic that 16% of people who lost their machines did absolutely nothing to recover them
The study was sponsored by Dell, which timed the release of the research with its announcement of a new service – similar to that already sold by LoJack for Laptops – that could trace lost machines and wipe out sensitive data.
However efforts by Computerworld to validate the research, which was conducted by the Ponemon Institute, revealed some contradictions.
For instance, Computerworld reported discrepancies at Miami International, which was identified in the report as having approximately 1 000 laptops lost, missing or stolen each week, the second highest laptop loss frequency among all airports after Los Angeles International, at 1 200 a week.
Computerworld asked Miami International officials to provide what records they have on lost, missing and stolen laptops. Their data shows that for all of 2007, 68 laptops were reported stolen and 480 were turned in to the airport's lost and found. For its part, the TSA in Miami reported that in the 12-month period that ended May 31, it had received only 38 missing laptop claims.
"We consider this study very nonscientific," Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman told Computerworld. The TSA says that, nationally, about 75 laptops are reported lost or missing each month. More than 2 million passengers go through TSA checkpoints each day.
Larry Ponemon, founder of the research institute, said he stands behind the original results, and the difference between the study's findings and the laptop incident numbers reported by the airports is a result of the methodology used by his researchers.
The study involved interviews with "rank and file" personnel who cover a wide range of areas in airports, including TSA checkpoints, facilities, departure gates and retail establishments.
Those airport workers are more aware of what Ponemon said accounts for the lion's share of the 12 000 laptops lost each week: Laptops that are temporarily lost in airports but quickly recovered.
One example would be someone who leaves an airport restaurant or security checkpoint without his or her laptop but then promptly returns to claim it. Such an incident would not be reported in official statistics, he told Computerworld.