What would happen if your computer was stolen?
 

Assuming it contains all data you need.
I just thought about that.
I left my laptop in my car by accident
if that would have been stolen
I probably would have cried - seriously
I would be FUCKED big time.

I also wondered what happens to me when someone breaks in and steals my shit

how to protect?

Weekly (or more often) DVD-R backups of everything, BIOS password, all sensitive data on an encrypted portion of the disk.

Back your shit up. Be able to switch passwords damn fast. Do not keep that much sensitive info on it.

It is all part of the business plan. Forget getting it stolen, how about the popo taking it for an investigation.

Where do you park your car? Just curious :)
WG

"all sensitive data on an encrypted portion of the disk"
that part interests me a lot...

:winkwink:
dare you lol

Seriously though, I have a backup at my office and my home. I have a third backup on a dedicated server as well so between the three copies, one of them should survive whatever took out the primary system.
WG

so what about your passes
eg stored in txt files
statsremote and 100s of other places

this "encrypted portion of the disk" HIGHLY interests me
i feel totally unprotected even though I make backups every here and then

Passwords are stored electronically in a text file and I have a paper copy in a binder in my office.
WG

that would be scary

I really need to backup my stuff.

time to buy an external Hd.

Then all the nude picture of me would be gone :(

I'd cry all night if that happens to me.. :(

Dude, totally, where do you park your car?


But for real, I backup important shit regularly on 2nd HDs, server, etc...all I really need are some vital files and programs/scripts...all those fit nicely on a CD, tiny section of HD or server... :thumbsup

encryption is a great idea, agreed

Back off and back up--always.

I forget that site where you can upload the contents of your drive for a nominal fee..

Weekly and monthly backups. I got my laptop stolen from my car and yes it was the worst feeling ever...

EFS... Encrypted File System. Plus a decent first line of defence. Followed by not keeping anything too critical on the laptop.

Back it up, and assume that no matter what encryption you have on it, someone can and will break it. So have a plan to change passwords, and always monitor for identity theft.

Since short, because I experienced a HD failure on my dedicated server I'm very aware of how important backups are. So I bought a secondary harddisk on a new dedicated server and looking into a secondary external harddisk that wont be connected to my pc just once a week to copy all info on my working one. Also, the new dedicated server has backups every 5 hours to the secondary harddisk and weekly offline backups.

I should be fine now :)

Like everyone else said, keep it backed up. You never know when the hard drive will crap out on you either. As for encryption, that's a great idea. I use PGP Disk to encrypt files I don't want people to access. Highly recommended.

a pgp disk??
got a link for the tech nooooob?

thats probably not the best idea to do if you're concerned with security

NEVER write your pw's down

just imo

i have about 90 different u/p stored in my memory.

All important files at home and in the office are stored on an external drive. And for the laptop, i'm not keeping any valuable data in it.

2 things:

1. frequent backups
2. HARD DRIVE LOCK PASSWORD


oh...one more thing......don't leave it in your car :upsidedow

I'd be waaay more worried about HD failure than theft... then again I don't travel that much with the laptop and anything tasty is locked in the boot rather than being on display on the seats.
I back up relatively often to DVD-RW these days after two HD failures in 5 years.

as they already said...you have to backup your files in a separate external zip drive.

I just saw Duplex with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Stiller was finishing a book due for the following day, and his laptop got thrown in the fireplace and got smashed by truck. I have always anticipated accidents like those since college when I was doing my bachelors thesis. a back up is always a must.