Another day, another laptop stolen

There's another laptop theft story in the press.

IT outsourcer LogicaCMG has had laptops stolen from its offices containing payroll details for the Metropolitan Police Service.

Apparently the risk of identity theft is low, but the fact that Logica uses laptops to access such sensitive information seems somewhat startling.

How could an IT specialist be so blind to the obvious security risks of highly sensitive data being held on a laptop?

Why doesn't this information reside in central systems protected by rigorous security?

If this has happened to a firm that is well versed in IT, what hope is there for the rest of us?

This incident was a disaster waiting to happen and makes you wonder how much of your own sensitive details are floating around on random machines that someone could just walk out the door with.