Data Protection Guide
Sometimes laptops are stolen not for the laptop itself but for data that is stored on it. If it is computer owned by government or big company employee than it could be subject of interest to some criminals. Here are some guidelines to protect you against information leaks or intellectual property thefts.
Strong Passwords
One of the easiest methods to protect your data from getting into incompetent hands is setting strong passwords in as many places as you can. First good place to set password is BIOS. It will require entering the password even before loading the operating system. To set password in BIOS you have to open BIOS configuration by pressing F1 or DEL key while laptop boots. If you have problems entering BIOS, consult the user's manual. This is not complete solution because BIOS password can be reset. Also some producers have default BIOS password, which may be used instead of yours. This will not stop skilled thieves but it will stop many less skilled criminals from accessing your private data.
Another good place to set password is operating system. Use one of newer version of Windows, like 2000 or XP because old 95/98/ME in fact does not have password protection at all (it can be bypassed simply by pressing ESC key at login prompt).
Data Encryption
Encryption is another good method of protecting your data. You may encrypt single files, folders or even a whole disk. Windows 2000 and XP have encryption feature build-in. Pretty Good Privacy is another good and popular solution. It is free for personal use.
Encrypted Virtual Disk
DataVault by Reflex Magnetics creates encrypted virtual hard disk in your system, which you can use like normal partition. This is comfortable and easy solution as you may edit and save files from every program directly on this virtual disk. This way you don't have to remember about encrypting your data.
External Drives
External drives are good solution to prevent data theft. They are relatively small so you can unplug it from laptop and carry it with you. Many of them have encryption feature so they protect your data even stronger. Read more in our article about external drives.
Backups
The best and strongly recommended way to prevent data loss in case of laptop theft is making backups. Of course it will not prevent others from accessing your data but you will not lose effects of your several months work. If your data is not private or top secret material but is still very valuable to you than backuping your data is just necessity.
You can make backups simply by recording your data on CD. It is good and easy method if you don't have too much data to protect, but it could be quite uncomfortable method for bigger amounts of data. There are some programs that make creating backups easier and faster. One of them is award-winning WinBackup. It already has over 100,000 pleased customers and was chosen as best backup software of year 2003 by Computer Shopper. Another, similar program is Handy Backup.
Some cheap, refurbished laptops don't have CD burner. If you have such laptop, you need another way to backup your data. One of them is a remote data backup. You may manually transfer your files to FTP account. Some backup software like Handy Backup have FTP support which makes creating your remote backups easier. There are companies that offer you space and automated systems for data backups.
External USB or PCMCIA hard drives are another good storage for data backups. There are plenty of them on the market.
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