[manarth]

Unfortunately, some of the side-effects of experience are distrust and paranoia. These are very effective experiences in software development.

If this theft happened to an experienced pro, then their data is encrypted and backed up, so all they've lost is hardware, and that's probably covered by insurance.

If the theft happened to a student, then maybe they're not the most experienced engineer. They might not have backups, and their data might not have been encrypted. They might not be ensured. The hardware cost is still - comparatively - cheap. But they might have to rewrite their thesis from scratch. Or risk having their personal data exposed to the public.

But at this point, the only help that financial aid can give, is restoration of the physical loss - i.e. a new laptop. In most cases, that wouldn't compare to the loss. But it might help, a little.