More than half of the data breaches that occur have been found to be due to a stolen or lost laptop. Keeping your laptop safe is important as they are very enticing for thieves and you should know how to take care of it so that it does not get stolen.
Laptops are extremely expensive and if you take it out with you, it is your responsibility to ensure its safety. Treat it like a pile of cash that you would constantly guard and keep your eye on. Do not let it leave your sight.
Carrying your laptop in a laptop bag can be dangerous. While it keeps the laptop safe from physical damage, it can easily capture the attention of a thief and they will start to target you. Therefore, if you are venturing into an unsafe environment, then keep your laptop properly in a backpack or your briefcase so that it doesn’t appear that you have a laptop with you. You can also install software that will alert you if your laptop is being handled or used in a suspicious manner. These work with the help of motion sensors and can be of great help.
When you are the airport, do not put your laptop on the conveyor belt before you begin to go through the metal detector and keep an eye open for it as it comes out from the other end. Security checkpoints can have a lot of hustle and bustle, which most thieves see as an opportunity to steal your laptop. Make sure your laptop bag is placed right on top so that it is not taken out silently without your noticing.
However, no matter how many precautions you take, your laptop can be stolen nonetheless. This is why you should back up all your files onto a USB or online. Do not keep sensitive or personal files and photographs on your laptop. You can always replace your laptop but if you lose an important file, it is pretty much gone forever.
Encryption is an effective way of keeping your laptop safe against thieves even if it falls into their possession. It takes a lot of work to unencrypt files and most thieves cannot be bothered to do the work required for that. This can often cause them to ditch your laptop somewhere else and then look for another laptop with less security.
Sometimes, even when your laptop is in front of you, it can be stolen. This often happens in crowds, where pursuing the thief is difficult. This is why it is recommended for you to invest in a laptop security cable that will secure your laptop to the surface that you have placed it on. You can get good deals for cables from the price comparison sites.
Lastly, it is always a good idea to simply label your laptop. If the thief knows that you have recovery protection it deters them from taking away your laptop as this means that the laptop cannot be sold.