How to secure laptop computer data
It seems like every passing day brings another story of a missing laptop computer with sensitive data on it. The most famous, of course, was the Veterans Administration computer, now recovered, that had personal data on 26 million U.S. military veterans on it.Businesses are responding to this issue with increased enforcement of who can obtain sensitive data in portable formats as well as by using tools to protect data once it leaves a secured location.
What can normal users do to protect their data?
Most home computers don’t have highly sensitive business data on them but many people have tax returns, credit card information and other data on their hard drives. And it only takes one “smash and grab” of your car window to lose it all.
One study says 10 percent of all laptops are stolen or misplaced, a figure I think is high but still highlights the issue.
One thing a consumer can do is put an administrative password on the laptop. This is a simple thing, done in the setup screen right as the computer boots. (You get into setup by hitting DELETE or F2 or a different key that will display briefly just as your computer first boots.
If you put an admin password on your laptop, you will be prompted for a password when you first boot the computer. If you don’t know the password, it won’t boot. (Read that again: make this a password you will remember forever because if you forget the password your PC is now a paperweight.)
A second option is to add a disk password on some models, which will put a basic level of protection on your hard disk.
Both of the above are enough to stop the routine thief from using a stolen laptop. It won’t stop a seasoned data thief.
For that you need to encrypt the contents of your hard drive. There are many products on the market for this at the consumer level. Two I have tried are MySecureDoc from WinMagic and SafeHouse.
Both are reasonably priced at under $30. My favorite of the two was My SecureDoc, which installed seamlessly under Windows XP (and 2000) and was simple to use. The password hint features were especially good because if you forget your password you are never seeing your data again. (Just don’t make the hints too easy... if everyone knows your mother’s maiden name it’s not a good choice.)
You can see the product at www.winmagic.com
As for recovering your stolen laptop, a fine choice is the oddly named “Lojack for Laptops” from CompuTrace. Named for the Lojack system that recovers stolen cars, this software will “phone home” and let the authorities know where the laptop is connected even if it has been reformatted.
It costs $49.95 from www.lojackforlaptops.com
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: There are some key tips to keeping your laptop safe. Here are some good ones: www.scambusters.org/laptop.html
James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm, and computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail is jim@cyberdads.com
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