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How does your team handle a stolen laptop?

2015-09-30 by Mr. Bear Leave a Comment

A member of my team lost a company laptop.

San Francisco is a harsh teacher if you leave a backpack visible in a car. Doesn’t matter where you’ve park, or how quickly you think you will be back – someone will come by and check. And they will smash your windows. I don’t think he was out of sight for more than 10 minutes.The theft was a costly lesson for everyone.

Process for Stolen Laptops

We immediately removed the laptop’s public key from all virtual machines that laptop could access. We changed the password on the VPN for that engineer. We checked if our insurance covered the loss of a laptop. Fortunately they did. A new laptop was ordered to arrive as soon as possible.

The engineer felt bad about the situation. There was no point in blaming him. He even told me – despite my stories about broken car windows in the neighborhood, he had to have the same misfortune befall him before the warnings sank in.

All he wanted was to get back to work. I understood. We handed the engineer a spare laptop and the day continued.

  • What is your process for dealing with stolen equipment?
  • Are your systems secure to handle someone gaining access to a laptop?
  • Do you have insurance for laptops?

Filed Under: Management

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