Analysts: Too much data could get 'lost in the wash'

Conducted by Texas-based Credant Technologies among dry cleaning establishments, a study determined that 9,000 USB sticks got forgotten in customers' pockets last year in the UK alone. One dry cleaner in London said he comes across an average of one USB stick every two weeks, whereas another estimated he's encountered 80 of them within the past year.

Other items mistakenly dropped off at the laundry inside people's pockets included money, keys, credit cards, a gold Rolex watch, and an envelope filled with diamonds.

A similar study -- undertaken by the same security specialists in September of last year -- found that 12,000 memory sticks, iPods, laptops and other devices got discovered by New York City and London cabbies that month in the back seats of their taxis.