For this week’s Tip of the Week I’ll delve back into some more “personal security” practices or, that is, specific ways to keep your mobile devices safe on the go. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s crucial to “break the Twenty Second Window.” It’s worth repeatedly emphasizing the Twenty Second Window.

This term refers to the twenty seconds, or so, that a thief has to strike, in most cases. Don’t forget to watch surveillance video footage of an actual theft that illustrates this perfectly. Laptop theft, as well as cell phone/iPhone/BlackBerry theft and just about all other personal property theft, is a crime of opportunity. The “window” of opportunity is usually quite short. A thief has to make a strike quickly, and escape, before his risk of detection becomes too high. And well all know this intuitively–whether you’re playing a practical joke, or doing something “more serious” that you don’t want to be caught doing, you typically hurry, when the time comes to pull it off. It’s obvious.

Laptop thieves live by the Twenty Second Window, usually. That video link above shows a thief who did just that, and got away.

Now for the tip. It’s hard to “run in mud.” Running in mud slows you down. It bogs you down. That’s what you want to do to a thief. So, put up barriers that will make it harder for a thief to strike quickly, such as zipping up your laptop inside your carrying case/bag and putting the strap around your chair. Better yet, never leave the laptop even for a moment. Better yet, always use a cable lock too. But at least put up some basic barriers that will threaten to make a thief stumble, make noise, get tangled, and so forth. Doing so is likely to be a very effective way to ensure that that thief hits the other guy’s laptop instead of yours. Thieves attack easy scores. If yours is harder, they tend to move on.