Tip of the Week: Security Through Obscurity is Not Security

There’s a very tried-and-true saying in the security world: “Security through obscurity is not security.” It is extremely common for users of technology to assume that “the bad guys” will not know how to break in, steal, hack, alter, or achieve whatever damage is in question. A similar belief is that “they wouldn’t be interested [...]

Rip of the Week: Long Island’s “Million-Dollar Laptop”

Here is an example of a theft where the true damage is readily identified. That is rare.
Christopher Keating over at Courant.com reports that Attorney General released a 37-page report on Tuesday, October 13, that said that the state tax department failed to safeguard the sensitive data of citizens after acting “in a ‘cavalier and careless’ [...]

Tip of the Week: Encryption + Tracking = Serious Protection

It’s true that today is the big official release of MyLaptopGPS Encryption. This is a big deal.
But I’d be remiss not to issue a tip that puts my money where my mouth is. Or, that is, why not follow my own advice?
Laptop tracking, remote data destruction, covert data recovery, and a 99.6% security success rate [...]

Tip of the Week: Use a BIOS Password

Since layered security is so fundamental to effective security, it helps to have yet another layer. This one is actually fairly strong, at least in one sense.
Set a password in your laptop’s BIOS. This is not the Windows password that would be used to access Windows, but a low-level password that is set right in [...]

Tip of the Week: Consider Private Web Browsing

I’ve already mentioned tips such as “forgetting your passwords” (not allowing the browser to store them), with respect to laptop security, and it’s good to be reminded of even the most simple, basic security precautions. Even experts need to be reminded sometimes, and certainly most other people do.
The latest versions of most of the major [...]

Rip of the Week: Laptop Theft in Broad Daylight Caught on Video

Here’s video surveillance footage of an actual laptop theft. This theft happens to include just about every attribute we talk about regularly here at MyLaptopGPS.
First, watch the footage:

What we notice here is important.

At 16:09:39 the thief enters the restaurant.
He waits 25 minutes. According to the restaurant owner, he even ordered some food.
At 16:34:20 he prepares [...]

Tip of the Week: Use a TSA-Approved Laptop Bag

Since a recent Ponemon Institute study revealed almost 12,000 laptops per week lost or stolen in US airports alone, and that the worst spot for loss/theft is the security checkpoint (no surprise there), it’s worth a tip at that very point.
I have to be careful, since I have previously recommended that folks not carry a [...]

Tip of the Week: Assume Your Employees Ignore You

Assumptions are remarkably powerful. Many of my recent tips have centered around assumptions because the assumptions we make often drive the entire way we live or operate a business. For example, if we’re having coffee and I assume that you’re listening when I speak, I might talk fairly quickly or cover a lot of material. [...]