Securing your notebook computer
Okay, so you have most of your digital life housed in that three kilogram clamshell known as your notebook computer. What can you do to keep it safe? The value of your notebook is held in two areas. The physical notebook itself and the commercial software applications you’ve purchased have a monetary value that can be established and insured. But then there’s the data it contains whose value is much harder to measure -- a digital photo, video production or half-finished novel may be priceless to you, but not even covered by insurance, for example. You need to look at protecting both.
Shopping with protection in mind
You can start this process even before buying a new notebook by thinking about how you use the computer, and then looking for products that have the features that will best serve your needs. Are you a rough and tumble kind of user? Some notebooks are ruggedized so that they are able to withstand a fair amount of physical abuse. One standard feature of a ruggedized computer -- and also available on many standard notebooks -- is built-in hard drive protection in the form of shock-absorbing gel mounts, or accelerometers that detect sudden motions and park the hard drive heads before they touch the platter surface, destroying the drive. All Panasonic’s ToughBooks are ruggedized but to greater or lesser degrees depending on the model, and some standard features include shock protected hard drives, magnesium alloy bodies and flexible membrane screens.
Do you slurp and sip while you compute? Some premium models of Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPads include a waterproof membrane under the keyboard, a shallow tray that has a drain hole -- so you can spill a half a cup of coffee on the keyboard and it will collect, then drain out the bottom without getting into the electronics.
ThinkPads were also one of the first notebook computers to include an embedded fingerprint reader, although other manufacturers now offer this feature. The fingerprint reader is a biometric stand-in for the password. Other computers, usually those aimed at corporate users where data security is taken very seriously, have built-in data encryption so if a notebook is lost or stolen, sensitive corporate data on the hard drive will be encrypted and therefore inaccessible to thieves.
Many new notebooks are also available with a built-in tracking system. Vancouver, BC-based Absolute Software Corp. has been signing deals with many major notebook manufactures so you can now buy some new computer models with the Computrace tracking software built in. Absolute sells a multi-facetted security solution for corporate customers, but also has a solution aimed at consumers and small business users called Computrace LoJack. A small program called the Computrace Agent is at the heart of the system. Whenever the computer is online, it sends out a signal revealing its location to the Absolute monitoring station. If the computer is reported stolen, that signal can be used to locate the computer. Because some of the Agent is written to the computer’s system BIOS, reformatting or replacing the hard drive won’t defeat it. For corporate users, Absolute has a number of other security solutions, including giving IT departments the ability to remotely delete sensitive corporate files on notebooks that have gone astray.
Aftermarket protection
Common sense would say that to avoid all those potential headaches, protect your notebook while it is still in your possession. All notebooks come with a security slot, which is a standardized hole in a reinforced area of the notebook. Standardization means that you can buy notebook cable locks from a variety of manufacturers that will fit. Cable locks have been around nearly as long as notebook computers themselves and are a simple, cheap method of deterrence. These are handy if you use your computer in a public place like a library or coffee bar, allowing you to get up and briefly leave your notebook. Another device that also exploits the notebook’s security slot is the motion sensing alarm. This device attaches to the computer and is equipped with a motion detector so if someone picks it up, the alarm is triggered. There are a number of vendors that make such alarms, including Targus, APC and Kensington.
The notebook computer is vulnerable to theft because it is an attractive target, but loss of the data the notebook contains can be even more devastating, particularly if it is confidential government or corporate information. Safend (http://www.safend.com/) specializes in securing the computer in another way. It’s slogan, “securing your endpoints,” nicely sums up the focus, which is to protect wireless connections as well as physical ports like USB. The development of physically small USB thumb drives with huge capacity gives thieves the means to pull large amounts of data from an unattended desktop or notebook computer quickly and without drawing too much attention to their activities.
Safend software allows you or your system administrator to set policies on the devices that are allowed to connect to your wireless or hard (e.g., USB, Firewire) ports in broad or specific ways. For example, you could block all USB memory devices, or allow only ones that have a specific serial number identification.
We’ve heard so much about virus and worm attacks and data theft over the past decade that every computer user should know this, but it bears repeating: you need to use security software on your computer. The nature of malware has changed -- and continues to evolve -- and the security software vendors also continue to evolve their products.
Okay, so you have most of your digital life housed in that three kilogram clamshell known as your notebook computer. What can you do to keep it safe? The value of your notebook is held in two areas. The physical notebook itself and the commercial software applications you’ve purchased have a monetary value that can be established and insured. But then there’s the data it contains whose value is much harder to measure -- a digital photo, video production or half-finished novel may be priceless to you, but not even covered by insurance, for example. You need to look at protecting both.
Shopping with protection in mind
You can start this process even before buying a new notebook by thinking about how you use the computer, and then looking for products that have the features that will best serve your needs. Are you a rough and tumble kind of user? Some notebooks are ruggedized so that they are able to withstand a fair amount of physical abuse. One standard feature of a ruggedized computer -- and also available on many standard notebooks -- is built-in hard drive protection in the form of shock-absorbing gel mounts, or accelerometers that detect sudden motions and park the hard drive heads before they touch the platter surface, destroying the drive. All Panasonic’s ToughBooks are ruggedized but to greater or lesser degrees depending on the model, and some standard features include shock protected hard drives, magnesium alloy bodies and flexible membrane screens.
Do you slurp and sip while you compute? Some premium models of Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPads include a waterproof membrane under the keyboard, a shallow tray that has a drain hole -- so you can spill a half a cup of coffee on the keyboard and it will collect, then drain out the bottom without getting into the electronics.
ThinkPads were also one of the first notebook computers to include an embedded fingerprint reader, although other manufacturers now offer this feature. The fingerprint reader is a biometric stand-in for the password. Other computers, usually those aimed at corporate users where data security is taken very seriously, have built-in data encryption so if a notebook is lost or stolen, sensitive corporate data on the hard drive will be encrypted and therefore inaccessible to thieves.
Many new notebooks are also available with a built-in tracking system. Vancouver, BC-based Absolute Software Corp. has been signing deals with many major notebook manufactures so you can now buy some new computer models with the Computrace tracking software built in. Absolute sells a multi-facetted security solution for corporate customers, but also has a solution aimed at consumers and small business users called Computrace LoJack. A small program called the Computrace Agent is at the heart of the system. Whenever the computer is online, it sends out a signal revealing its location to the Absolute monitoring station. If the computer is reported stolen, that signal can be used to locate the computer. Because some of the Agent is written to the computer’s system BIOS, reformatting or replacing the hard drive won’t defeat it. For corporate users, Absolute has a number of other security solutions, including giving IT departments the ability to remotely delete sensitive corporate files on notebooks that have gone astray.
Aftermarket protection
Common sense would say that to avoid all those potential headaches, protect your notebook while it is still in your possession. All notebooks come with a security slot, which is a standardized hole in a reinforced area of the notebook. Standardization means that you can buy notebook cable locks from a variety of manufacturers that will fit. Cable locks have been around nearly as long as notebook computers themselves and are a simple, cheap method of deterrence. These are handy if you use your computer in a public place like a library or coffee bar, allowing you to get up and briefly leave your notebook. Another device that also exploits the notebook’s security slot is the motion sensing alarm. This device attaches to the computer and is equipped with a motion detector so if someone picks it up, the alarm is triggered. There are a number of vendors that make such alarms, including Targus, APC and Kensington.
The notebook computer is vulnerable to theft because it is an attractive target, but loss of the data the notebook contains can be even more devastating, particularly if it is confidential government or corporate information. Safend (http://www.safend.com/) specializes in securing the computer in another way. It’s slogan, “securing your endpoints,” nicely sums up the focus, which is to protect wireless connections as well as physical ports like USB. The development of physically small USB thumb drives with huge capacity gives thieves the means to pull large amounts of data from an unattended desktop or notebook computer quickly and without drawing too much attention to their activities.
Safend software allows you or your system administrator to set policies on the devices that are allowed to connect to your wireless or hard (e.g., USB, Firewire) ports in broad or specific ways. For example, you could block all USB memory devices, or allow only ones that have a specific serial number identification.
We’ve heard so much about virus and worm attacks and data theft over the past decade that every computer user should know this, but it bears repeating: you need to use security software on your computer. The nature of malware has changed -- and continues to evolve -- and the security software vendors also continue to evolve their products.
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