Keep close tabs on that laptop.

A new study from Traverse City's Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Intel Corp. revealed that the average cost of a lost or stolen laptop is nearly $50,000.

The benchmark analysis focuses on representative samples of organizations in the United States that have experienced laptop loss or theft within the last 12-month period.

In total, 138 separate cases involving a lost laptop computer used by an employee, temporary employee or contractor became part of the study

Among the study’s key findings:

* The average value of a lost laptop is $49,246. This value is based on seven cost components: replacement cost, detection, forensics, data breach, lost intellectual property costs, lost productivity and legal, consulting and regulatory expenses.
* What makes a lost laptop costly to a company is the potential for a data breach to occur. In the cases we studied, the occurrence of a data breach represents 80 percent of the cost.
* The second highest cost component is attributed to intellectual property loss. When the cost of a data breach is removed, intellectual property loss represents 59 percent of the total cost.
* The faster the company learns that a laptop is lost, the lower the average cost. If a company discovers the loss in the same day, the average cost is $8,950. If it takes more than one week, the average cost rises significantly to approximately $115,849.
* Lost productivity is not a significant cost to companies. When employees have down time due to losing their laptops, it represents only 1 percent of the total cost.
* While lost laptop costs appear to be correlated to position in an organization, the most senior level respondents do not experience the highest average cost. The average cost of a lost laptop for a senior executive is $28,449 and the highest average costs are for manager and
director, $60,781 and $61,040 respectively.
 

More in the Great Lakes IT Report.