It’s lunch time and you stop by your favorite coffee shop to check e-mail and grab a bite to eat. You settle in at a table when your pickup number is called. Returning to your table, you find your laptop and appetite—have both disappeared!
Okay, maybe you’re not foolish enough to leave your laptop unattended in a public place, but one of your employees might think it’s okay to leave a laptop or PDA in their car, a hotel room, or in their gym bag and end up exposing your company’s data and network to thieves.
If it hasn’t happened to you or someone you know, according to the FBI, it will. Sure you have a backup of the data, but now detailed information about you, your family, your business and your clients is in the hands of a criminal intent on stealing your money, identity or worse. There is a lot of software and hardware that protects your data from being stolen by online criminals, but how do you protect your data when someone steals your physical laptop or PDA?
Until now, if your laptop was stolen, your primary recourse was to change the passwords to your network, financial websites, etc., watch your credit report and cross your fingers hoping for the best.
Now there’s a relatively inexpensive option that can help you get your laptop back. Here’s how it works: If your laptop is stolen, PC-Trak™ from GadgetTrak® is activated by logging into your online account and clicking a button to activate tracking. The next time your PC connects to the Internet the software will activate and start sending you emails with the specific location and network environment of the system, as well as use the camera to take a photo of who is using the system every 30 minutes.
We have been researching and evaluating the various technologies that are available to provide this level of protection and we’ve selected GadgetTrak ProActive Security as our recommended technology. GadgetTrak supports PC’s, Mac’s, Blackberries, Smart Phones, PDA’s, iPhones and USB devices like USB keys, iPods, Cameras and more.
If your Blackberry is stolen, you simply text a message to it that includes your password and the phone is reset to its blank factory default condition. What could be easier?
As with all theft and hacker deterrents, thieves can circumvent this software by downloading your data before connecting the device to the Internet. Surprisingly, the typical thief isn’t smart enough to know this.
Over the years, we have had a few clients experience lost or stolen laptops and PDA’s. In some cases, there was real concern about the data that was stored on those systems. So, for absolute security, data encryption still remains the most reliable form of protection. Encrypted data is unreadable to thieves unless they have your encryption key. There are pros and cons to both approaches, but it’s important for you to have SOME protection.
For additional information:
http://www.gadgettrak.com/
LoJack for Laptops:
http://www.absolute.com/products/lojackforlaptops
