Oh, and there was another $500,000 in damage from the fire, too.

Disabling automatic log-ins, requiring a BIOS password, and using technologies that can locate a laptop when the Internet is accessed (like MyLaptopGPS) are the easiest, most inexpensive ways to deter potential identity theft. A more complex password, using both capital and lowercase letters, and numbers (PaSSw0rD would be an excellent example) is the easiest way to protect your information, the article reports.

The street value of a laptop is, in and of itself, an important motive for theft. So it’s best if you keep an eye on your laptop while you’re going through security in the airport, or if you jump up to get a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop. Better yet, just pick it up and bring it with you.

Still, if you do find yourself a victim of laptop theft, be sure that you’ve utilized all possible security measures. Even purchasing protection from MyLaptopGPS could make all the difference.

Not the United States’ foreign policy… but the “foreign” policy of the friendly Brits across the pond.

This past Sunday, a laptop computer was reported stolen from a home in Greater Manchester. The article by the Telegraph tells that the home is currently rented by MI5 security services. Though the article reassures, “Police said the files were encrypted — making them impossible for anyone to access,” it’s nonetheless easy to worry about the machine falling into the wrong hands: the MI5 laptop contained anti-terror files, after all. Even the remote chance of nefarious folks gaining access to these files summons the specter of irreparable damage befalling any anti-terror knowledge the UK has already gained.

Thankfully, police believe this act was an “opportunist theft” and that the house and laptop were “not targeted.”

To their detriment, the Ministry of Defence recently admitted that 658 laptops have been stolen over the past four years. Most recently, however, an MI6 agent sold a digital camera on eBay that contained not only images of potential terror suspects, but their names, fingerprints, and, furthermore, images of rocket launchers and missiles.

It seems the UK needs to tighten up security measures in its government. Even with simple registration on the MyLaptopGPS website, all of this sensitive information could be recovered.

Over the five-year time period of 2002 to 2007, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost 418 laptop computers and 76 weapons, according to a news release posted by the Justice Department on Sept. 17, 2008.

In her related article for The Washington Post, Holly Watt noted that “two weapons were subsequently used to commit crimes.” Watt also determined that several of the missing firearms were haphazardly “left” in public places… one on an airplane, three in bathrooms, one in a shopping cart, and two on the top of cars.

It is hardly a stretch to call these practices ludicrous, and to demand change.

The fascinating part, however, is that officials aren’t even aware of what information was contained on the 418 stolen laptops. That’s government affairs, political folly, and who knows what else that is now available to any petty grocery store thief.

And with airport laptop theft at an all time high, certainly there should be cause for alarm for any government officials with lost or stolen laptops. Frankly, had even one of these laptops been equipped with security technology like that offered by MyLaptopGPS, these sensitive files could have been easily recovered and returned to the correct public officials.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), another company many readers know of, is of course runner up to Intel with its processor chips. It seems former Intel employee Biswahoman Pani wanted to make that leap a little more accessible. After resigning from Intel, and while in business negotiations to work for AMD, Pani accessed information from his still-active Intel laptop, and copied a slew of Intel documents, including 13 top-secret company files containing design plans for future processing chips.

As reported in the Boston Globe this past Friday, an affidavit was issued by the Boston computer crime squad stating that more than 100 pages of sensitive documents as well as 19 designs were found in a search of Pani’s house. Pani and his attorney, R. Bradford Bailey, maintain that Pani had merely copied the documents to aid his wife, also an Intel employee, in a transition from one Intel plant to the next.

Spokeswoman for Intel, Claudine Mangano, stated, “Intellectual property is a critical asset for Intel.” Pani’s jeopardizing of the files breaches Intel security guidelines, and may potentially fall into the hands of the competitor AMD.

FBI Special Agent Timothy Russell stated that though there is no evidence AMD ever received the confidential files, and there remains no evidence that AMD knew of Pani’s actions or encouraged them, the Bureau continues to explore the possibilities of this sensitive information being placed in the wrong hands.

Though Intel will likely screen employees more rigorously from now on, the fact remains that had proper security procedures been followed, the Intel documents and designs would never have been susceptible to copying, theft, or pawning to another company.