Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations

T. Dimkov; Wolter Pieters; Pieter H. Hartel

doi:10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165

Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations

T. Dimkov, Wolter Pieters, Pieter H. Hartel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

219 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Organizations rely on physical, digital and social mechanisms to protect their IT systems. Of all IT systems, laptops are probably the most troublesome to protect, since they are easy to remove and conceal. When the thief has physical possession of the laptop, it is also difficult to protect the data inside. In this study, we look at the effectiveness of the security mechanisms against laptop theft in two universities. The study considers the physical and social protection of the laptops. We analyze the logs from laptop thefts in both universities and complement the results with penetration tests. The results from the study show that the effectiveness of security mechanisms from the physical domain is limited, and it depends mostly from the social domain. The study serves as a motivation to further investigate the analysis of the alignment of the mechanisms across all three security domains to protect the IT assets in an organization.

Original language	Undefined
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010)
Place of Publication	USA
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	727-732
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4244-9779-9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165
Publication status	Published - Dec 2010
Event	3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, CPSCom 2010 - Hangzhou, China Duration: 18 Dec 2010 → 20 Dec 2010 Conference number: 3

Publication series

Name
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society

Conference

Conference	3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, CPSCom 2010
Abbreviated title	CPSCom 2010
Country/Territory	China
City	Hangzhou
Period	18/12/10 → 20/12/10

Keywords

METIS-271109
Case Study
IR-74289
Laptop theft
SCS-Cybersecurity
physical security
EWI-18721
Social Engineering
digital security

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165

Cite this

@inproceedings{f7ad9ccd1b744351aaa831f559b4f819,

title = "Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations",

abstract = "Organizations rely on physical, digital and social mechanisms to protect their IT systems. Of all IT systems, laptops are probably the most troublesome to protect, since they are easy to remove and conceal. When the thief has physical possession of the laptop, it is also difficult to protect the data inside. In this study, we look at the effectiveness of the security mechanisms against laptop theft in two universities. The study considers the physical and social protection of the laptops. We analyze the logs from laptop thefts in both universities and complement the results with penetration tests. The results from the study show that the effectiveness of security mechanisms from the physical domain is limited, and it depends mostly from the social domain. The study serves as a motivation to further investigate the analysis of the alignment of the mechanisms across all three security domains to protect the IT assets in an organization.",

keywords = "METIS-271109, Case Study, IR-74289, Laptop theft, SCS-Cybersecurity, physical security, EWI-18721, Social Engineering, digital security",

author = "T. Dimkov and Wolter Pieters and Hartel, {Pieter H.}",

year = "2010",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165",

language = "Undefined",

isbn = "978-1-4244-9779-9",

publisher = "IEEE",

pages = "727--732",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010)",

address = "United States",

note = "3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, CPSCom 2010 ; Conference date: 18-12-2010 Through 20-12-2010",

}

Dimkov, T, Pieters, W & Hartel, PH 2010, Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations. in Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010). IEEE, USA, pp. 727-732, 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, CPSCom 2010, Hangzhou, China, 18/12/10. https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165

Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations. / Dimkov, T.; Pieters, Wolter; Hartel, Pieter H.
Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010). USA: IEEE, 2010. p. 727-732.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Effectiveness of physical, social and digital mechanisms against laptop theft in open organizations

AU - Dimkov, T.

AU - Pieters, Wolter

AU - Hartel, Pieter H.

N1 - Conference code: 3

PY - 2010/12

Y1 - 2010/12

N2 - Organizations rely on physical, digital and social mechanisms to protect their IT systems. Of all IT systems, laptops are probably the most troublesome to protect, since they are easy to remove and conceal. When the thief has physical possession of the laptop, it is also difficult to protect the data inside. In this study, we look at the effectiveness of the security mechanisms against laptop theft in two universities. The study considers the physical and social protection of the laptops. We analyze the logs from laptop thefts in both universities and complement the results with penetration tests. The results from the study show that the effectiveness of security mechanisms from the physical domain is limited, and it depends mostly from the social domain. The study serves as a motivation to further investigate the analysis of the alignment of the mechanisms across all three security domains to protect the IT assets in an organization.

AB - Organizations rely on physical, digital and social mechanisms to protect their IT systems. Of all IT systems, laptops are probably the most troublesome to protect, since they are easy to remove and conceal. When the thief has physical possession of the laptop, it is also difficult to protect the data inside. In this study, we look at the effectiveness of the security mechanisms against laptop theft in two universities. The study considers the physical and social protection of the laptops. We analyze the logs from laptop thefts in both universities and complement the results with penetration tests. The results from the study show that the effectiveness of security mechanisms from the physical domain is limited, and it depends mostly from the social domain. The study serves as a motivation to further investigate the analysis of the alignment of the mechanisms across all three security domains to protect the IT assets in an organization.

KW - METIS-271109

KW - Case Study

KW - IR-74289

KW - Laptop theft

KW - SCS-Cybersecurity

KW - physical security

KW - EWI-18721

KW - Social Engineering

KW - digital security

U2 - 10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165

DO - 10.1109/GreenCom-CPSCom.2010.165

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-1-4244-9779-9

SP - 727

EP - 732

BT - Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom 2010)

PB - IEEE

CY - USA

T2 - 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, CPSCom 2010

Y2 - 18 December 2010 through 20 December 2010

ER -