Laptop Security MeasuresThere are two distinct types of laptop security – Software and Physical
Its easy to get caught up in the software side of things and completely ignore the physical which can be much worse.
Physical laptop security is in essence concerned with the prevention of your laptop getting stolen. There is a very large market in laptop theft, after all they are relatively small, expensive, hard to trace, plus they may even have an added bonus of your private files. All this of course makes them an ideal target.
Most thefts happen when a house or apartment is broken into, or at busy public locations such as airports or stations usually the laptop is only put down for a second, but that plus a simple distraction is all it takes.
So what can be done to prevent this?
Out of sight out of mind – never leave a laptop in public view, especially in your car, but even in your home try not to leave it in open view of a window or you could be asking for trouble.
If you are out of the house over night move the laptop, slide it under a sofa or elsewhere out of view, as an extra precaution even move its mains adapter to give no indication of a laptop being there in the first place.
A laptop security cable is a good basic security measure, but even with these the laptop can literally be ripped off by a determined thief.
The next time you look for a laptop case try to find one a little more conspicuous than the usual type of cases with the makers name advertising it, which really advertises what you are carrying. I recall a spate of laptop thefts at a large airport in Brasil, passengers approached the booking desk and in the few seconds it took to put the laptop down and remove passport and check in luggage, another passenger would interrupt the person at the desk at the desk the laptop was gone. Eventually the thieves were caught, it turned out to be a teenager and a man in his 70’s, they said they targeted laptops because they were generally very easy to spot.
When your out and about treat your laptop like a baby never leave it on its own or take your eyes off of it. This can sometimes be difficult, but having a shoulder strap and many laptop bags do means you should not have to put it down, or having a carry bag that does not resemble a laptop bag can be a useful deterrent.
Of course there are is only so much that can be done to stop your laptop being taken, but your next line of defence is passwords and encryption software.
If someone manages to get your laptop you can make sure they only get the laptop and a worthless one at that, by adding software laptop security this involves adding a Power on BIOS password can make the laptop worthless, add some type of drive encryption or good password protection to any private or personal files and at worst they may be able to use the hard drive if it is repartitioned and formatted, of course there are always means and way to remove Power on BIOS passwords, but this is usually beyond the scope of most people, plus on later generations of laptops many have security chips that are virtually impossible to get into.
A common way to protect data on laptops is by using encryption software, this means the hard drive will only be recognised and can only be accessed by a password and it must be in the same computer it was originally configured in. This type of software also comes with a nice large sticker advising any potential thief that the laptops hard drive is encrypted and cannot be accessed.
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