A recent Computerworld article states that half of all pirated Vista software is malware – largely trojan horse programs which could subject your computer to outside control.
This sounds an ominous note for any company which allows employees to bring in laptops or allows connections via VPN from home.
Even if you have policies which require that laptops be examined before being connected to company networks, what happens after that. Where is your data after a family member downloads malware (from any source) onto their personally owned machine?
The implications of this is as difficult to manage as they are obvious, Any machine which can access confidential information must be subject to continuous security oversight – No matter who owns it.