Students Steal Laptops for Class Credit?

This recent story by Charlie Osborne at ZDNet highlights a research project where students at the University of Twente were told to steal 30 laptops from faculty and staff on campus. The "thefts" were part of a PhD thesis titled "Alignment of Organizational Security Policies, Theory and Practice" that explored the ways in which human behavior and habits can thwart good security practices.

During the project, the laptops had been "loaned" to random individuals by the researcher, Trajce Dimkov, and the recipients were asked to safeguard the laptops by either chaining them to their desk, locking them up, or securing them witha password. Students then used various creative methods of "stealing" the laptops. In over half the attempts that were made, students were successful in stealing the laptops.

What's the lesson? 

•  Pay attention to where your computers are and whether or not they are secure from theft. 
• Unlocked offices are great targets for theft.
• Don't get too comfortable in your habits or think "it will never happen to me."