alone with a mobile office on their back was a long-time dream
of the Baby Boomers who were born in the early 1960's and grew
old watching how science and technology began to skyrocket but
limited to the imaginary of television shows and films
portraying the wonders of gizmos and gadgets that became a
reality for the Generation X and Y, the wired teens of today.
Age does not really counts when it comes to mobile technology
and you and I know alike that in a every-day changing world like
this who does not get involved in the latest technology trends
is simply living in the past. We have seen how personal
computers took over a place in most households all over the
world, but portability would be the focal point in the 1990s
bringing handhelds and mobile phones.
Amidst this technology's commotion, laptops remained in the
dark as the long sought-after dream to carry on a light tool to
create and personalise our work on the go. Yes indeed, this is
my personal approach to introduce you to tech secrets to
safeguard your portable computer, but nonetheless interesting
realising how the turn of the century made of laptops our daily
companion after an obscure startup in the early 1970s, followed
by a slow evolution from notebook to the actual device's format
between the 1980s and early 1990s.
If you are like me, your laptop is being used as multipurpose
device at home and going to the school, at work or just having
fun in the outside world. For each of the different stages in
which your laptop performs the principal role in your life,
there is a safeguard measure to bear in mind. Like with PCs,
laptops are susceptible to data-stealing, data-loss and hackers
attack, though the small size and portability of this device
makes it vulnerable to physical thieving , that is why I am
going to summarise some of the methods to protect it.
If you are a College student you might know some security
basics to protect your laptop, whether posted on your campus or
passed on to you as a flier from other students. For those who
ignore these preventive measures, they focus generally on
keeping your laptop personalised by means of a unique sticker
applied anywhere on its surface, try laptop sleeves, a
light-weight alternative to laptop cases protecting your mobile
computer from exterior damage and keep it safely embraced when
you are going from one place to another. Jotting down in a safe
place your laptop's serial number and making instead a permanent
marking on its surface are also two useful measures that we will
discuss later.
Even though, there are also gizmos specially designed to
prevent your laptop from being stolen while you are carrying on
your device and they are relatively inexpensive including cable
locks that secure your laptop against casual thieves by means of
a built-in USS (Universal Security Slot) available in most
modern mobile computers. When it comes to work with your laptop
on a desktop, I would suggest a docking station that locks your
device to the surface you are working on. Going farther, have a
look at this Car Safe for Valuable and Laptop Computers which
might be a must for a full-time mobile office owner.
Moving on to data protection, I was reading at the Spy Gadget
Blog how Self-Destructing Laptop Aims to Protect Confidential
Data works by protecting the confidentiality of your data
through different levels, truly interesting but somewhat
expensive because of being a £10-monthly subscription service.
Although there are also tracking software that ping security
centres, this is also a subscription service so my budget
solution is a piece of software (Laptop Alarm) that enables an
alarm centre which not only triggers bells and whistles, but
freezes four basic functions that make unreachable your data in
the event of theft.
On the hi-tech end, some laptops come with biometrics
capability, meaning that your fingerprint can be used as
identification to logon in order to access your data. Even
though the risk of get your data exposed to a hacking attempt
make the information vulnerable to be retrieved by means of
viruses, Trojan horses, worms and other forms of malware sent to
your laptop by an open port or imperceptibly retrieved during
your regular online activities.
I will never visit websites in which my sensitive data would
have to be disclosed without activating a Firewall. This simple
measure integrated in most Operating Systems by default helps to
stop hackers attempting to connect to your laptop. Listen to me
when I say you must not simply install an anti-virus, you must
make sure to update its virus pattern o a regular basis since
hackers are always seeking new forms to retrieve or destroy your
data.
Luckily most anti-virus software comes with an auto-update
feature so do not turn it off. Anti-Virus, anti-malware and
anti-spyware are useful applications to protect any computer but
they might be annoying during scanning or updating processes. If
your laptop slows down simply adjust the settings to keep them
running as a background process and, if you are working with a
Windows Operating System with enhanced security measures, make
of them a valuable tool to protect your laptop's traveling data.
In my personal experience I'm always trying to add some
protection to my data by encrypting or password protecting
sensitive information in addition to the safeguard measures
described above. You can find more information on this matter by
paying a visit to popular downloads sites such as ZDNet.
We have learnt basic laptop safeguards but, what if everything
fails and your laptop is stolen? First of all, read carefully
the manual to find any manufacturer's remark on this matter. Do
you remember I told you that writing down you computer's serial
number will help you?. This is it, now you can report the theft
to both the laptop's customer care centre and the police
station.
Along with the laptop's serial number you will be questioned
about any physical characteristic that might identify your
computer from others. While stickers can be removed or
overlapped, if you opted for drawing o applying a permanent
marking on the laptop's surface this will help the officials to
report it and even get it back in no time with a little luck.
About The Author: You can read more on security issues and
products on SpyReview. http://www.spyreview.co.uk
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