Study: More than 10,000 laptops go missing at U.S. airports each week

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The statistics are mind boggling but is happening at record rates in the country's airports: a record amount of 637,000 laptops were lost last year. It averages to 10,000 laptops each week for the largest airports, out of which 65 per cent are lost forever. For the medium sized airports, the losses were less but still considerable: about 2,000 laptops are lost.

The survey found most of the laptops were lost at the security points.

Most of the respondents surveyed (77 perc ent) don't believe that they will ever get the lost laptop back at the airports and 16 per cent said they won't even make an effort to recover it when lost.

The Federal Trade Commission has reported that airports, hotels and parked cars are places where laptops can be easily stolen. Also, the security checkpoints baffling procedures make it easy for the travelers to lose track of their laptops, while also making it a "fertile ground for theft". But aren't we supposed to feel safe at the security points?

It is better to protect laptops with GPS laptop tracking services from Absolute Computrace or using Front Door's Retriever software (which locates laptop using Google Maps). . Apple also has a "Back to My Mac" and helps retrieve stolen Mac laptops.

Be safe with your laptop. Have suitable password protection and use a laptop recovery service, a small investment that pays off in the long run.