Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

In the next few weeks I’m going to be going over some important security tips for your laptops. Some we have gone over before, but they are worth going over again in more detail. I want to cover both physical security, network security and being secure while your surfing the web.

Physical security is self-explanatory. Don’t leave your laptop unattended. Ever since WIFI, I hardly ever take my laptop into the truck stop. I’ve seen guys get up and leave their laptop on the table while they go to the buffet or even the restroom. Not me, I have too much stuff on my laptop and even though a thief wouldn’t get my personal data (more on that later), they still have a laptop they could replace the hard drive and be good as new.

There is really only one way available to secure your laptop while your in the truck stop and that’s with a Kensington lock. Kensington was the first, but other manufacturers are making the same style of lock nowadays. Almost all laptops sold in recent history have a slot for a Kensington lock. It’s basically a steel cable you connect to your laptop and wrap the cable around something solid. There could be a lock at one end with a loop or some kind of lock on both ends.

Given enough time, cables can be cut, locks can be picked, but hopefully in a crowded truck stop that kind of behavior would be noticed and someone would say something.

Another option is a laptop alarm. If the cable is cut or the USB connection is pulled out the alarm sounds.

If after your two minute restroom break you come back and you alarm didn’t go off, your cable was cut and your lock was picked and now your laptop is gone, now what?

Since your Lojack for Laptops is installed, no worries. If your laptop is stolen, call the Computrace center and report it stolen. The next time your laptop connects to the internet, Computrace calls the authorities with the location of your stolen laptop. The thief will have to replace or format the hard drive to erase the Lojack software, but if you have a computer bios with a piece of the Lojack software, it reinstalls itself and alerts the monitoring center.

There are similar systems out there that will show their location when the laptop or desktop connects to the internet. One that doesn’t require police intervention is Laptop Cop. The next time your laptop goes online not only does it broadcast its location, but you have access to your laptop so you can erase sensitive files.

Links:

Kensington Locks at Amazon

Belkin USB Laptop Security Alarm at Amazon

Lojack for Laptops

Laptop Cop