With regard to the query about laptops, I'm not sure what an impact analysis is
(and most certainly haven't attempted anything in that vein!), but it seems to
me that for DPA purposes a laptop is not notably different from (say) a floppy
disk - the important point is that one is carrying data and making it more
vulnerable. The point has to be that all appropriate security steps must be
taken.
Files on a laptop but with password protection are thus presumably (and
certainly in terms of honest intentions) more secure than non-protected files
on a fixed pc. The same sorts of argument would concern files used for
working at home, whether using a laptop or not. Of course, laptops are more
pinchable - and that's where the "appropriate security" comes in, whether it's
leaving the thing in the pub or having it forcibly nicked.
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Dr Trevor Field
Senior Assistant Secretary
University of Aberdeen
++44 (0)1224 272077
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