If you use your laptop in public places LAlarm is a piece of free product that could help you (small fee for corporate use). This system is basically an alarm for your laptop, best of all it is packed with tons of cool features like sending an SMS message to you or destroying your sensitive data if it is stolen.
"The following procedure locks down a laptop to a table or other immobile object. It requires 1) a USB flash drive and 2) a neck strap (or similar material), which will be used to fasten to the USB flash drive one end and ties around a table leg or other immobile object the other end. It is useful when you do not have access to a power outlet.
- Fasten the strap to the USB flash drive. (see photo below)
- Fasten the strap to a table or other immobile object.
- Plug in the USB flash drive into a USB port of a laptop.
- Lock the computer by pressing the Windows logo key and L key together.
When a thief pulls the laptop from the table, the USB flash drive will be disconnected from the laptop and then an alarm will go off."
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lol, in the example pic, the cord is tied to the thumb-drive’s removable cap….FAIL
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LOL, It does look removable. I don’t think it is though otherwise it would be the worse demo picture ever.
I was thinking that a hack that would make it even more robust would be to use an insulated cable and run the USB drive power though it. This way if the cord is cut it would appear to the system that the drive was simply unplugged.
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just look at their FAQ:
The alarm sound (except theft alarm) is subject to the Window speaker volume level.
Power loss can interrupt the theft alarm sound but can not stop the theft alarm. If your computer is currently not locked due to a power loss or an improper shutdown, first lock the computer and then unlock it in order to disarm.
Seems like it pull the battery, take the notebook with you and disarm the software manually using live-linux or anything alike. I think i prefer truecrypt to protect my data :/
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Thanks Hacked Gadgets for this great article. I like it. It gives a clue how to best use an old thumb drive- my 128MB thumb drives got new life. I never used my laptop security cable and lock in coffee shops. I didn’t want the cable & lock make me look overly suspicious. Now I have an alternative- thank to the Hacked Gadgets. I already tried the trick with my old thumb drive. It worked great as well as this http://www.lalarm.com/en/KB15_Arm_Laptop_Alarm.htm. Keep up the good work.
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Hello,
I see this information about the Physical Laptop Security using a Thumb Drive. It is very useful information. I appreciate your information. You have done nice work. Thank you for sharing…
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Good idea, poor implementation. It can’t even adjust the Windows volume level?
The only real way to do this is keep all sensitive data on the stick. That means at least someone can’t steal the data, unless they have time to copy it. Not much you can do to stop them taking the machine with this method as they need only turn it off first.
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