From January to May of this year, the Identity Theft Resource Center tracked 136 major identity thefts affecting 56 million people. According to the Ponemon Institute, 45 percent of such breaches result from missing laptops. At an average corporate cost of $182 per compromised record, why doesn't every company encrypt laptop data?

"Worldwide, about 20 percent of laptops are encrypted," says Richard Stone, vice president of marketing at mobile security vendor Credant Technologies. "A year ago, one barrier was budget, but most companies have now gotten past that. During the VA incident, envelopes alone to notify those affected cost $11 million. Encrypting that data would certainly have cost less."

Stone believes that many companies do not yet encrypt laptop data because they have not determined exactly what they must do to comply with regulations and make their organization secure. "Measure twice, cut once applies to encryption," he says.