By Suzana How To Secure A Laptop Or Notebook Computer
With so many computers being stolen it’s a good idea to use some form of security to beat the thieves. You can imagine the distress a stolen laptop can cause, especially when you consider the average laptop computer has personal photographs, audio library, personal letters, emails even business information on the hard drive. So what are the options for securing a laptop computer? By far the easiest solution is to use the Kensington type socket found on many computers. There are other options such as finger print scanning and tracking software such as Prey, this down loadable software needs to be installed onto your computer. If your computer is then stolen you can log into the Prey website and if the computer is connected to the internet it will give you the ISP address being used. This will enable the Police to trace your computer.
A Kensington lock utilises a socket on your computer. The lock itself looks similar to a cycle lock. They are a flexible cable with a lock on the end. You can buy either combination using 2 to 4 wheels or key type locks. You wrap the cable around a secure anchor point, the steel frame of a desk it a good idea. You can also buy an anchor point that screws into a wall. The Kensington locks are not a fail safe solution. They will definitely slow down your average thief, but they can be breached with time. You can expect to pay anything from five pounds to upwards of fifty pounds in the United Kingdom depending on the quality and construction of the lock.
Whilst locks are a good idea as they will deter many thieves, it’s also good practise to ensure your laptop is fully password protected. You can prevent the hard drive from being booted by enabling password protection at boot up stage, this is done on the main board bios, you enter this by pressing one of the F keys whilst the system is booting. Be careful not to change any settings in the bios as this can cause problems. You should also enable the user password in Microsoft Windows, this requires a password to be entered when Windows launches.
Which ever method you choose, be it a physical notebook security lock or software, it’s a good idea to password protect your computer. Whilst this will not stop a computer expert from gaining access to you files, it will prevent the opportunist thief.
