Lenovo Launches Lost And Found Laptop Service

Lenovo’s Lost & Found service might more accurately be thought of as “return or find.” The free service, announced on 1 Oct and available later this month, is a complement to Lenovo’s paid, subscription-based service, both of which are focused on retrieving lost or stolen devices.

Lost & Found is for the Good Samaritans among us and simplifies the act of returning a lost device to its owner.

Once the PC is lost, the owner can use Absolute software — made by Computrace — to automatically lock the device if it’s turned on, protecting data. What pops up on the screen instead is a messaging explaining that the device is lost and a toll-free number to call. There’s hope, too, for battery-drained PCs: Finders can call the toll-free number listed on a sticker on the device.

Along with good karma, the finder is then sent a pre-paid shipping box. Once the PC is back in the owner’s hands and a thank-you note is sent out (OK, that latter part is just a suggestion), the PC can be unlocked, also through Absolute.

“In an incredibly fast-paced, mobile work environment accidents happen, and this service can provide added peace of mind for owners who misplace their laptops,” said Peter Schrady, Lenovo’s vice president and general manager of software, peripherals and enterprise products, in a statement. “At the same time, Lenovo makes it easy for people to do the right thing.”

Should a lost device go undiscovered, or end up in less obliging hands, embedded Computrace software, according to Lenovo, makes it possible to track and recover a device.

In April, the Ponemon Institute revealed the findings of a device security study commissioned by Intel, which found that a stolen laptop can cost a business nearly $50,000 — or up to $1 million in more extreme cases. Tech Republic, similarly, has found that approximately 1 in 10 notebooks are stolen, and 88 percent of those go unrecovered.

Also in April, Dell revealed the findings of a security study that, like Ponemon’s, found the major cost of device loss to be not the PC itself but the breach of data.

“Through the collaboration of Absolute and Lenovo, our customers can feel safe knowing that their data is secure while Lenovo works with the finder on their behalf to get their ThinkPad laptop safely back in their hands,” said Rich Cohen, senior vice president of business development at Absolute, in the statement.

“This new service, combined with our industry-unique Theft Recovery Team, protects ThinkPad customers from both accidental loss and the theft of their computers.”