When it comes to identity theft, stolen data and so on, portable/mobile devices are a big target. All someone has to do is leave a laptop in the open for just a few seconds in a public area and *poof*, gone.
Having a laptop stolen will ruin anyone’s day. And you’ve probably seen many different news stories about how people offer rewards to get their stolen laptops back. However, whenever they do post these rewards, what they want back is the data and couldn’t care less about the laptop itself because that’s what’s important.
Being the data is what matters most, the most secure way to store data on a laptop is to not store it there. Instead you should use other means, of which there are two.
1. Internet
This is not exactly the most secure way to store data given the insecure nature of public Wi-Fi, but it is stored in a place where you can get to it on any computer.
2. USB stick on keychain
As far as a thief is concerned, he or she wouldn’t bother trying to steal a stick because it’s worth less than 10 dollars. To you, however, it’s worth a whole lot more because of the data stored on it. Every USB stick to the best of my knowledge can be keychain-attached. When you plug in the stick to the laptop, leave it on the chain, keys and all. If you have to leave the laptop for a moment, always take the keychain with you. By doing this, you will train yourself never to leave your keys with your data in the open unwatched. And if in the unfortunate even your laptop is stolen, you still have all your important data because it will be on your person.
It’s also well known that USB sticks can be secured easily by both hardware and software.
Using a USB stick is a very easy, very cheap ‘insurance policy’ of sorts to keep your data safe and with you at all times.
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I use SyncBack Free to keep the data on my laptop and desktop synced, so I have a copy of everything on my laptop. I then use TrueCrypt to encrypt my laptop so if it is stolen, nobody can recover my data.
256 encryption with a backup is not a good enough option? Neck chains can break. Storage in the cloud requires an internet connection.
…256 bit encryption….
Use a commercial VPN when backing up your data to the cloud especially when connected by a unsecure WiFi hotspot. I use Witopia, a little expensive but worth the price.
It becomes a big problem if we loose some important data from our laptop, thanks for sharing some good ways to avoid it.
Thanks for sharing it with us, will really help us to protect our data.