Recently, a member with the screen name of Dynamike had his laptop stolen. wanting to help others avoid the same fate, and trying to do a little bit of good, he posted some links to help people find the methods and tools to keep themselves, and their expensive technogoodies, safe.

http://www.absolute.com
This is a really great software solution. do i recommend it as a stand-alone answer to laptop theft? sadly, no. Absolute is the primary provider for the Computrace LoJack software. Its designed to let ET fone Home so to speak. When your laptop is stolen, you call computrace and they start tracking the laptop. using the ip address, they can give the info on who the service provider is and what ip the stolen laptop is using to connect to the internet. Computrace contacts local law enforcement who can then act to recover your stolen laptop.
it works by being installed not just in the hard drive, but permanently into the bios as well. if the thief reformats your drive, the bios agent rebuilds the files on the hard drive again.

http://www.pointsec.com
This website offers data security solutions for your laptop. Encryption means that bad guys who may be looking for sensitive financial, personal, or corporate data wont get it. instead, they get a bunch of unreadable files.

http://www.pgp.com
This website offers the very best in encryption software. we are talking about virtual drives, thumbdrive encryption, entire disk encryption, mail encryption, and instant messenger encryption, as well as self decrypting archives for sending sensitive data to people who do not have the program, but need the data, securely. i recommend this one, i am using it and have for years. PGP- they call it Pretty Good Privacy for a reason.

http://www.alertsec.com/
This website offers data security solutions for your laptop. Encryption means that bad guys who may be looking for sensitive financial, personal, or corporate data wont get it. instead, they get a bunch of unreadable files.

http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/lear...or-laptops.asp
See Absolute.com above for explanation.

http://labmice.techtarget.com/articl...opsecurity.htm
Very well put together and thought out guide to security practices regarding your laptop. its a really great how to that goes into a lot of detail to give you some ideas, and point you in the direction of helpful tools to keep your laptop secure.

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1186
This is another security how to, but is less comprehensive and more concise. Its got a few points the previous how to guide omits.

http://www.computersecurity.com/laptop/
A link to a company offering several security devices for a corporate environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/stay...psecurity.mspx
A short and sweet 9 point guide to increasing the physical security of your laptop while on the road.

http://www.networkworld.com/newslett.../00477464.html
A great article/ review of Motion detecting laptop security devices. They are a great supplement to cable locks and other devices. article gives links to the devices and discusses them in detail.

http://www.secure-it.com/
A site offering several various security devices. Among them, a privacy filter for your LCD screen to keep unwanted eyes off your work in a public place, and several locking devices.

http://www.securitydocs.com/library/3399
Another very comprehensive security guide, but this one is more focused on Data security and Network security. It also discusses physical security of laptops as well.

http://www.targus.com/us/accessories_security.asp
Great maker of laptop locking mechanisms such as cable locks, and motion sensing alarms.

http://us.kensington.com/html/1434.html
My personal favorite lockmaker. I use the kensington MicroSavor Retractible. i like it because its small and easy to carry in a small carry bag, its retractable, and uses a key instead of a combo. i have real problems remembering what day of the week it is, let alone a combination to a lock. Because of that i like the one i chose. they offer many different locks, and also offer models with motion sensing alarms too.

A special thanks to Dynamike for posting the links, and good luck with the hunt to retrieve your stolen laptop. Hopefully we can all learn something valuable from what happened to him, and take his advice. Laptop theft has become the most prevalent technology crime in the past few years, and replacement cost for those of us who buy our own is a huge hit to take for simply not taking appropriate measures to protect our investment.

For corporate users, it can be even worse. sensitive client data, financial data, valuable proprietary data, or even in some cases national security data, can be lost and in even worse cases, fall into the wrong hands. that is in addition to the cost of the loss of the equipment itself.

hope this helps someone out.

ev