The Real Cost of a Stolen Laptop for Businesses

March 28, 2025

When a laptop is stolen, it’s rarely just about the hardware. For businesses, the real cost goes far beyond replacing a device, it hits productivity, exposes sensitive data, and can damage your reputation.

Here’s what’s really at stake when a laptop goes missing.

🧠 1. Data Exposure: Priceless and Risky

Even with strong passwords and encryption, a stolen device poses a serious data risk. Customer records, financial documents and proprietary work can all be compromised in an instant. Depending on the industry, this might trigger compliance issues or costly breach notifications.

Potential cost: $50,000+ in fines, legal fees, or lost contracts.

⌛ 2. Downtime and Lost Productivity

When an employee loses a laptop, work grinds to a halt. Teams lose momentum, meetings are delayed, and IT scrambles to set up a replacement. For remote teams, the impact is even more severe as employees are cut off from their team.

Potential cost: 2–5 days of lost productivity per device.

🛠️ 3. Replacement Costs Add Up

Replacing a single laptop might cost $1,000–$2,000. But scale that across a growing team, and it becomes a recurring expense that eats into your IT budget. That’s before you add in the time and labor to reconfigure new devices. There are better things to spend time on than replacing lost laptops.

Potential cost: $2,500+ per incident (device + labor + software licensing).

🔒 4. Trust and Reputation

If a stolen device leads to a data breach or missed client deliverables, trust can erode fast. Clients expect you to keep their data and your tools secure. Once that trust is broken, it’s hard to regain.

Potential cost: Lost contracts, damaged relationships, reputational harm.

💡 Prevention Is Always Cheaper

Multplx was built to help businesses avoid these risks entirely. Our laptop locks and security accessories are designed to be sleek, reliable, and easy to deploy across teams whether in-office, remote, or hybrid.

Check out our bestselling Universal Laptop Security Lock which works with all laptop models. Available to purchase on our online store, through our partner network and via Amazon.