One of the most common causes of security breaches is stolen hardware. And I’m sure you’ve all heard of the thousands and thousands of laptops stolen in airports, from parking lots and other public places. And as most companies fail to implement a comprehensive endpoint security solution, a stolen laptop means trouble. For the end users, a laptop sometimes stores most of their documents, personal and business, memories from trips and other important events and everything that is private and dear to them. Picturing everything lost to a stranger’s hand is hard to cope it.

Dell states there’s a new way to prevent such bad things from happening: a self-encrypting laptop. Your data is still lost, but at least no one can acess it. The drives with self-encryption features are produced by Seagate and embedded in the new Dell product. And apparently, the Seagate hardware will soon be shipped by IBM and LSI as well. Let’s hope no one breaks the encryption system!

All workers involved in building the London Olympic site for the 2010 games will go through a thorough biometric authentication process. The biometric screening will consist of a two-tier process, reports the Times, palm-print reading and face recognition. A total of 100,000 workers will have to comply with this security requirement until the completion of the Olympic site. If the system works, it might also be used for stadium ticket holders.

The biometric screening project is on the other hand already rising serious questions about the level of protection it can provide for private data:

The use of biometrics is part of a £354 million strategy to secure the 500-acre Olympic Park during its construction, which starts in June. But it has raised concerns about data protection among unions and civil liberty groups.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of Ucatt, the main construction union, said: “We do not foresee a problem, providing the ODA [Olympic Delivery Authority] guarantee that the biometric data will not be passed on to any third parties and will be wiped once the project is complete.”

The methods employed to prevent data losses, theft or security breaches aren’t clear for now. I’d recommend a thorough analysis of what endpoint security and DLP solution will be chosen to make sure biometric data is not lost or stolen before its final deletion at the end of the project.