

Lessons I learnt when my laptop was stolen - HackyGeeky
http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/05/lessons-i-learnt-when-my-laptop-was.html

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jrockway
I think TrueCrypt is the only good advice there; hiding a folder does nothing
for your protection (people don't look at the stolen laptop for your credit
card information, regexes do), and using hardware encryption just sounds like
a disaster waiting to happen, like consumer-level "hardware" RAID. (RAID
controller dies; your data does too.)

I'm still surprised that people don't encrypt all their personal information,
especially on laptops. Truecrypt doesn't even require a reformat or reinstall
-- download it, click a few buttons, and your data is safe and there's almost
no speed hit.

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gte910h
I've thought about doing truecrypt a few times, but I'm afraid that will
greatly complicate cross border trips

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jrockway
By complicate, you mean simplify.

"We need to search your laptop."

"Sure, take it."

Laptops are disposable when they're encrypted.

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keefe
"so that even if someone gets in, they have to have basic skills to get to
your data"

if they want your data, they'll just plug the HDD in to a different machine
and bypass windows security that way, OS passwords only dissuade the most
casual criminal

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jcl
Unless I'm mistaken, none of his suggestions use OS passwords. All of his
suggestions protect against plugging the hard drive into another machine
(except hidden folders, which only work against non-tech-savvy thieves,
anyway).

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HackyGeeky
jcl - Passwords are great, the more complicated, the better. However when your
laptop is stolen, why would they put their time in it cracking your OS
password. If plugging the HDD in another computer bypasses it completely.

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jrots_
Full disk encryption (hardware based) on SSD seems like an interesting option
for this but not many manufactures have this. Samsung has done this,
[http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_enc...](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_encryption_comes_to_SSDs_for_mobile_devices_laptops),
but I cant find the market ready product.

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frou_dh
If you don't backup your entire drive, it's still useful to know which files
were on it. I have launchagent (OS X cron equiv) dumping a full file listing
on schedule.

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gaius
I cannot recommend Time Capsule highly enough.

~~~
frou_dh
With a laptop I prefer to skip external drives and go purely offsite.

