I was just reading a post to Friendfeed that reminded me of my intention to pass along a simple tip that has saved me hours of frustration.

That post addresses a box of keys. Many people have them; a box of keys from ages past that no one has any idea which locks they go to.  When I first conceived this tip I was thinking of the many chargers we accumulate as we add more and more electronic gadgets to our lives.

How many of these things are floating around your house? I must have ten or more. The worst thing is that they are all far too similar. The only differentiating factor is the tip, and that usually doesn’t suggest a specific piece of electronics. Does it go to my old PDA or my new cordless razor?

They often don’t have a name brand on them, that would be helpful. And you can’t simply plug them into the wall then into a gadget to see if it powers up. Get the polarity wrong and you could fry a valuable device.

So whether you have a box of miscellaneous keys or a dozen no-name chargers, here’s a simple and inexpensive way to keep track of where all these things go and what they belong to.

The metallic silver, fine point Sharpie.

On every charger in my house is written the device it goes to in silver Sharpie. Even chargers that carry an identifying brand I write the exact device it powers. You may have to write small, especially on keys, and you may have to renew the label every so often, but seeing a charger with “SamCellPhone” written in silver on the plug-in means I don’t have to try and read the “Samsung” embossed on the side.

Silver Sharpies are great for writing on any dark object. Just please, don’t be tempted to use it to write your universal password on the bottom of your laptop for easy reference.

Laptop security is composed of two elements, physically securing the computer and securing its contents.

There are several solutions to each, so today I’ll be addressing the physical security of a laptop then move into securing your data in a future post.

Cable locks

Perhaps the easiest to use, the most obvious to would-be thieves and the least expensive solution to the risk of theft is to use a cable lock specifically designed for laptops. The best known dealer in these types of lock is Kensington.

Most laptops have a “Kensignton slot”, a rectangular slot usually on the side of the computer toward the back. This slot is fairly standard with all the laptop manufacturers. However, my HP Pavillion dv2000 lacks a slot, and other laptops and netbooks may as well. Check to be sure your laptop has such a slot before purchasing a lock.

These locks are handy for offices, the library, any “public” place where you might need to leave your computer unattended for a few moments. They are extremely difficult to cut, though not impossible. So while these locks offer reasonably good physical security, you should still not make a practice of leaving your laptop unattended for extended periods of time. There are cable locks that incorporate an alarm that will sound if anyone tampers with the lock. While this might save your laptop from theft, it’s also likely to cause you embarrasment if you’re using it as Starbucks or a bookstore.

Cable locks are relatively inexpensive and come in a variety of configurations. They are useless if you’re in an environment where there’s nothing to loop the cable around. You also need to be sure you don’t simply run the cable around a chair or table leg if the chair or table can be easily lifted and the cable removed from the leg.

Labels

Putting a “Return If Found” label on your laptop may help recover it if it’s stolen and later pawned or discarded, but it won’t help deter theft in the first place. Labels work best in conjunction with cable locks. Companies like www.stuffbak.com and www.trackitback.com offer an easy to use recovery system for items registered with them and carrying their label.

Of course this method depends on your stolen laptop being recovered by an honest person who calls the service to report it found. Still, considering the modest price of these labels, it’s an added layer of security that doesn’t cost a lot. It’s also safer than inscribing your social security number on your computer. No sense suffering identity theft along with the loss of the laptop.

Software Solutions

Software security is an approach taken by companies like Computrace LoJack. LoJack is “phone home” software. Once it’s installed (there are versions for Windows and Mac) and the computer connected to the internet, the LoJack software communicates with the company’s servers. If your laptop is stolen and used to connect online, this communication will help authorities trace its location. The weakness with this method is that the computer has to connect to the internet to be traced. If someone steals your laptop, removes the hard drive and pawns or sells the case, LoJack and similar software won’t be of any use. There’s another consideration with “phone home” software. It can slow your system down and is often tagged as a malicious process by anti-malware applications.

If your laptop is stolen for parts and to mine the data off the hard drive, none of the software solutions will do much good, unless you have a Dell self-encrypting laptop with Seagate encrypting drives and McAfee security software.

Another approach which actually combines hardware and software security is covered in this article on The Register,

Seagate is now shipping 5400 and 7200 rpm Momentus notebook drives with 320 and 500GB capacity and full disk encryption options. This is AES 128-bit US government-grade encryption according to Seagate.

Dell is building Seagate FDE drives into the Latitude and Precision notebook lines, self-encrypting laptops, and the OptiPlex 960 desktop. The idea is that such drives will prevent any data loss when the notebooks, or OptiPlex, is disposed of, lost, stolen or loaned to a third-party. The encryption key never leaves the drive and so is not susceptible to the cold boot attack. Encryption is carried out by a chip on the drive and takes place at drive I/O speeds.

Seagate aims to have across-the-board encryption and has Maxtor BlackArmor encrypting external drives, Momentus FDE notebook drives, Savvio FDE enterprise 2.5-inch FDE drives, and Cheetah FDE SAS and Fibre Channel data centre drives.

There is a hint that IBM and LSI will ship products using the Seagate FDE drives.

The Momentus FDE drives can be used in two modes. One is enterprise-managed with firmware that works with software such as ePO to configure and manage the drives. The other is a BIOS-managed mode in which a BIOS password is used to authenticate the system. This latter mode, Seagate says, can be used to retrofit an FDE Momentus into an existing notebook and so secure its data against loss.

Dell hasn’t released pricing information yet, but I suspect this technology won’t come cheap and will mostly appeal to businesses for whom data encryption is almost mandatory.

Next post we’ll discuss securing the data on your computer so that even if it’s stolen and never returned you can be reasonably sure the data is secure.

If you saw the movie Minority Report, you’ll remember the large, interactive computer screen Cruise uses. Life once again imitates art. Someday soon this technology may be used in your home.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Oblong Industries is the developer of the g-speak spatial operating environment.

The SOE’s combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels brings the first major step in computer interface since 1984; starting today, g-speak will fundamentally change the way people use machines at work, in the living room, in conference rooms, in vehicles. The g-speak platform is a complete application development and execution environment that redresses the dire constriction of human intent imposed by traditional GUIs. Its idiom of spatial immediacy and information responsive to real-world geometry enables a necessary new kind of work: data-intensive, embodied, real-time, predicated on universal human expertise.

Learn more…