Laptop theft is on the rise

 New York Times 

 In a 1998 survey of 458 corporations, government agencies and
universities, 65 percent reported that laptops had been stolen from them
within the last year. Laptop theft was the third most common type of
electronic skulduggery, behind viruses (reported by 84 percent) and
insider abuse (78 percent), according to the survey, which was conducted
by the Computer Security Institute, an association of computer security
professionals in San Francisco. 

 Safeware, a Columbus, Ohio, company that insures computers, reported that
it received 309,000 claims reporting stolen laptops in 1997, a 17 percent
increase over the year before. About 100,000 desktops were reported stolen
that year, the report said. The total cost of the thefts was put at $1.3
billion.