Security actions being taken because of thefts.
A thief steals your laptop and garners lots of personal information, perhaps corporate information. Industry is changing to help lessen the damage by laptop thefts.
Recent thefts of laptops with sensitive corporate data have prompted more companies and individuals to purchase everything from locks to tracking software to protect data from PC snatchers..
Hardware and software is being purchased to create layers and layers of “protection”. One such software is designed to track a computer’s location when it is logged onto the internet.
Since laptop heists are on the rise something has to be done about it. In particular there are company executives with sensitive data on their laptops which can and in some cases has been taken. This sensitive data is social security numbers along with retirement and pension plan data which can add up to a substantial amount of money.
Once the laptop is taken, bypassing the password(s) is a simple process. All it takes is a Linux operating system disk and changing of the password. Other thieves use search engines to get software tools that unlock a password; therefore, anyone that is skilled in computer forensics can access your laptop.
Some precautions are cable locks that will bolt your laptop (or desktop) to the desk, alarms on these locks, and data-wipe software which will lock up or wipe the data when the stolen PC connects to the internet.
This month Gateway began offering a package of products that includes locks, tracking software and remote-wiping software allowing a PC user to remotely destroy data the next time the laptop is connected to the internet.
Other precautions one should take would of course consist of backups and these stored in a different location than your computer area as well as keeping data on a removable memory and not on the hard drive.
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