Many travellers are leaving their laptops unprotected, it has been revealed.
Computer manufacturer Dell announces that 57 per cent of laptops lost in European airports are never claimed by their rightful owners.
The company adds that some hundreds of the new laptops purchased by companies this year are likely to be lost, misplaced or left unattended before the end of 2008.
Larry Ponemon, chair and founder of the Ponemon Institute - which carried out the research - says: "More than 175,000 laptops are lost or go missing in the major European airports every year."
Indeed, the firm found that 900 laptops per week are misplaced by travellers passing through London's Heathrow airport.
The Ponemon Institute recently revealed that many firms are facing security problems due to the lack of a convenient way to monitor how files are distributed.
Such a warning is echoed in the Dell finding that around half of laptops lost by professionals contain confidential information, while a similar proportion are not encrypted or protected.
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