Securing Your Laptop When Traveling

If you bring your laptop with you when traveling and have any sort of sensitive data on it, it’s a good idea to take a few precautions in order to make sure that your data does not fall into the wrong hands. First, have a good backup plan in place. Even if your laptop is lost and no one gets to the the data, that’s a small consolation if it was your only copy of precious documents! Second, use a password on your computer. This means that if you laptop is stolen, someone will have a difficult time accessing it.

Another even more secure step is to encrypt sensitive data with a good password. This is good for times when the data on a laptop is worth much more than the machine’s hardware itself. Finally, it’s a good idea to bring a security cable with you. This can allow you to easily secure down your laptop when it needs to be out of your site. For example, your hotel room may seem secure but it has maids going in and out of it all the time. Securing your laptop to the bed or desk can go a long way towards discouraging casual theft. Finally, try to minimize the amount of time that the computer is out of your site and beyond your control. By taking these easy precautionary measures, you can help reduce the stress that comes with losing a laptop and its data. If you have already lost a laptop before, you know how important these steps are.