A survey by the Ponemon Institute revealed that about 637,000 notebook computers are lost at airports each year, over 12,000 per week, according to Computerworld on Tuesday.

Of those, over 10,000 notebook computers are reported lost at 36 of the largest U.S. airports. Reasons for losing the computer include outright theft, having left the computer somewhere it shouldnit be, or leaving them behind at the security checkpoint, something can be particularly distracting.

Roughly 65 percent of those notebook computers lost at the largest airports are never reclaimed, and the vast majority report that they believe they have no hope of recovering their lost computer.

One valuable tool for frequent travelers with computers, including Macs, is Absolute Softwareis Computrace LoJack system which has the ability to both remote wipe a lost computer and physically locate it.

The report, commissioned by Dell, also said that many people are ashamed of reporting lost laptops. That may be understandable for individuals, but more and more corporations and government agencies are requiring the hard disk of notebooks computers to be encrypted and losses immediately reported.