Unless you’ve been living under a rock during the last two weeks, you’ve probably received numerous RSS feeds and news feeds, and have been bombarded with actual television media, covering the loss of four government laptops from right under the nose of the Insolvency Service in Manchester, England.

And if you gave the story more than a fleeting glance, then you already know that the Insolvency Service is in charge of looking after the affairs of bankrupt firms in England and Wales.

What are the damages? Four missing laptops, 122 former directors of insolvent firms, and creditors and employees all at risk for identity theft. And it’s not the first of government data breaches in the UK. Take a cyber hop across the pond and check it out.

If you don’t have time to navigate the site, you can always get the shorthand version here in the related Reuters article.

While the Insolvency Service is working with the Greater Manchester Police Department to recover the laptops, it could have skipped this nonsense altogether with the proper laptop security measures. Simply by registering here, online, at MyLaptopGPS.com, the entire issue could have been avoided. It’s just that easy for you, for your neighbor, or even for the government.