A Practical Guide to Laptop Security

Laptop security is a subject that few of us consider until we experience the consequences of not having done enough about it. If you're one of the millions of people who use a laptop computer to earn a living, to bank on-line, to store confidential information, to communicate with friends, colleagues, customers ... this site is for you.

Laptop computers are a premium source of negotiable data that can be readily monetized.

Cyber criminals don't want your laptop; they want the information on it.

They would rather use your credit card, social security and driver's licence details to siphon off funds or go shopping than have the hassle of selling a stolen laptop.

Identity theft is a growth industry, it's highly profitable and involves very little risk.

Identities are no longer authenticated by physical presence, but by reference to information about us. Cyber criminals are well aware of this. They no longer need to rob banks with guns to get our money.

Identity theft is the ultimate low risk - high reward crime of the 21st Century The cost of compromised laptop security can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars.

Every day tens of thousands of laptops are stolen and millions are compromised by viruses and hackers.

Our mission is to provide a comprehensive check list of threats and responses so that you can reduce or eliminate the major threats to your laptop security:

• Theft and loss.
• Viruses, spyware and malware.
• Password hacking and cracking.
• Wireless communication.
• Internet communication.
• Data backup and recovery.
• Hardware failure.
• Removable media: USB's, media players and flash memory sticks.
• Residual data on disk drives
• Accidents.

While laptop computers will continue to be lost and stolen, (in excess of two million are stolen annually and less than 3% are ever recovered) our objective is to show how in the worst case the costs can be limited to replacing hardware.

Property theft is manageable. Information and identity theft is a much bigger challenge and the consequences can be disastrous...