How to Protect your laptop

A laptop’s portability makes it convenient–and an easy target for thieves. Losing your laptop can be devastating, especially if you keep important documents and files on its hard drive, without a backup. Here are five ways to protect your laptop from being stolen (or from remaining stolen), as well as to safeguard the data you store on it. Follow the steps below to safeguard your laptop.

1. Use a Physical Lock
Physically locking your laptop to an immovable object isn’t exactly the coolest thing you can do, but it works. Just about every laptop on the market is equipped with a small lock slot that works with laptop locks such as the Kensington ClickSafe Keyed Laptop Lock ($45) or the Targus Ultra Max Laptop Cable Lock ($50).
A laptop lock isn’t svelte, but it is secure.These laptop locks work just as bicycle chain locks do: You find a large, immovable object, such as your desk, and wrap the metal cable around it. Insert the lock into your laptop’s lock slot, and your computer becomes virtually theft-proof, assuming that the thief cares about keeping it in working condition.

2. Install Tracking Software
Well, your laptop has been stolen. Or perhaps you lost it, and some unscrupulous individual picked it up (in other words, they stole it).
How can you retrieve it? Fire up the laptop-tracking software that you had the foresight to install on your machine.
A new breed of laptop security software has arrived, and it’s very effective. Using several different elements, including IP address locations, Wi-Fi positioning, and even the ability to turn on the laptop’s webcam remotely, laptop-tracking software can help you get your laptop back.
Flipcode’s Hidden, Absolute Software’s LoJack for Laptops, and ActiveTrak’s GadgetTrak are just a few examples of laptop-tracking software.

3. Back Up Your Data
Losing a $1000 piece of machinery is pretty bad, but losing a $1000 piece of machinery with all of your important files on it is much, much worse. If your laptop ends up in the wrong hands, the last thing you want is for all of your data to land there too.
For this reason, you should probably invest in a physical external hard drive, such as the supertough IoSafe Solo Pro ($350 for 1TB), which is both waterproof and fireproof, or the versatile, hot-swappable LaCie 2big Quadra ($369 for 2TB). You don’t have to back up your computer every 5 seconds, but it is a good idea to back up the machine whenever you can remember to do so. It’s also wise to keep sensitive documents off portable machines and drives entirely, if at all possible.