Who wouldn’t be devastated by the loss of their laptop? So much of your life is on it that it can feel like you’ve lost an arm. You’ve not only got to deal with the financial loss but there’s the worry of what the thief has access to. There are measures you can take to minimize the pain.
1 Have Your Laptop Engraved
There are numerous ways you can have your laptop engraved so that people in pawnshops and the police can get it back to you. There are some companies that engrave the plastic, and there are others that put a printable stain on your laptop that is impossible to scratch off without scratching off the plastic too.
Frequently asked questions
2 Put Tracker Stickers on the Bottom of Your Laptop
A sticker on the bottom of your laptop may make people think twice about actually taking it or keeping it. There is a slim chance the thief will see the sticker and quickly get the laptop out of his or her house because he or she thinks it is being tracked right now.
3 Keep Track of Your Laptop with Tracking Software
There are plenty of paid services you can use to track your laptop. Most laptops do not have GPS, but they do connect to the Internet. Tracking software can tell you where your laptop is by the places where it has made contact with other Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile telephone stations.
4 Save Serial and Model Numbers
As a preventive measure, write down your laptop’s model number and serial number. You can give the numbers to the police, and if they find the laptop, they will give it back. It may also help to identify your laptop if it has been stripped for parts.
5 Have a Password and Change It Every 72 Days
On your desktop or laptop you are given the option of setting up a password. This stops people from gaining access to your computer if they physically have it. Many people do not put a password on their laptop because it is annoying having to type it in whenever they boot it up. However, a password can stop thieves from seeing your data and can stop them from making better use of your laptop. Change your password every 72 days just in case somebody you know has been trying to figure it out. And keep the password somewhere safe because if you forget it, you’re absolutely stuffed!
6 Back up Your Data
Forbes reported that only 18% of unprotected laptops are returned to their owners. You should backup your data, but how do you do it? Putting your data on discs is okay, but sometimes they degrade, get scratched or broken, and you lose your files forever. You can put your files on a flash drive, but any number of events could damage or delete your files on a flash drive. You can put them on the Cloud, but all the major cloud services have had security breaches. A combination of backup options is probably the best.
7 Actually Be Careful with Your Laptop
Most laptops are stolen because people are careless with them. You can protect your laptop from thieves and protect a stolen laptop by taking adequate precautions. Don’t leave it on display in your car, and actually take the time to put a password on your laptop. People don’t believe that it will be stolen because it is so big, but other people will happily walk out with it whilst you are in the bathroom at a café, and many will happily take it from beside (whilst in its bag) your feet when you put it down to pay at a counter.
Have you ever had your laptop stolen? Did it make you more security conscious with your new one?
