Victims of laptop theft have about a one in 65 chance of being reunited with their computers, according to UT Police Department records.
UTPD counted 65 reports of laptop theft last year, five more than in 2006. Only one was recovered in each year.
"It all depends on what's on the computer and how they sell them," said Detective Michael Riojas, an officer with the UTPD Criminal Investigation Unit. "We might not ever get anything back sometimes."
Theft reports remained steady with about five to six per month last fall. Laptop theft counts as a Class B misdemeanor but can change depending on the cost of the laptop, Riojas said.
He said that thieves can uncover any unprotected information on a laptop.
"Whatever anybody would put on the computer they can get, so if you go on and put pictures, music, your financial statements …there's a lot of information that they could potentially get from a laptop if they wanted to," Riojas said.
Cam Beasley, chief information security officer for UT's Information Technology Services, said University policy requires any portable device containing sensitive information to be encrypted. He said the tech service is writing additional encryption services for faculty and staff.
Students can use encryption programs found on operating systems, such as BitLocker or EFS for Windows and FileVault for Mac OSX, Beasley said.
"But [students] should be aware of the potential loss or corruption of data associated with improper management of encrypted data," Beasley said.
Beasley also recommends using password-protected screen savers and writing down Media Access Control addresses, which are encoded within the ethernet adapter.
Officer Layne Smith of the UTPD Crime Prevention Unit said users should engrave their driver's license number on both the top and inside of their computer as a visual deterrent.
"The locks that they sell can be easily defeated with wire cutters in a matter of seconds," she said. "It's just a false sense of security."
Owners can also purchase tracking programs such as LoJack for Laptops or Absolute Software to increase their chances of recovery. Smith said the software is undetectable.
"We've been pretty successful when that's been on there," Riojas said. "When someone logs on to the Internet, it calls back to a center, and that center captures whatever information is put out, like the IP address where it's calling from, when, where, that type of information."
Students should never leave their computers unattended or unsecured, she said.
"If you're in a dorm room or apartment and you're not using the laptop, put it up," Smith said. "A lot of times in the dorms, what they will do is they leave the dorm rooms open just to run down the hall. Someone could pass by, see it and snag it."
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