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Entrepreneur, Jan, 2001 by Amanda C. Kooser

Do more to protect your high-tech laptop than ye olde cable lock.

The same factors that make laptops so handy for businesspeople also make them prime targets for thieves. And the real cost of losing a laptop to burglary comes only when you add the value of the lost equipment to the value of the lost information and the risk to company security. Safeware, The Insurance Agency Inc. (www.safeware.com), estimates 319,000 notebooks were stolen in 1999--at a loss of more than $800 million.

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These days, most notebooks come with built-in slots for attaching cables. A low-tech innovation in theft prevention, cables are still a popular, but limited, solution. A basic 6-foot combination lock cable from Kryptonite (www.kryptonite.com) runs $39 (street); with a thickness of 5 mm, it weighs just over 7 ounces. Cables can be attached to any stationary object, but they're not the most convenient way to secure a laptop in an airport, and any thief with the right tools can make short work of most cables.

Two software security products have recently hit the market: Secure PC from Lucira Technologies Inc. (wwwiucira.com) and CyberAngel from CSS Inc. (www.sentryinc.com). Secure PC tracks stolen laptops as soon as they connect to the Internet, sending notification and a map to local police. The software is free to download, with fees for activation and tracking. CyberAngel locks your laptop against unauthorized access and notifies a monitoring center of its location (cost: $79.95 per year).

The future of laptop security may come from Intel's Protected Access Architecture. Prior to booting up, the laptop "authenticates" the user through James Bond-style fingerprint scans, smart cards or USB "keys." Notebooks equipped with this system would be useless to a thief and wouldn't require extra locks, cables or software fees. Expect to see this technology crop up in laptops this year--a big improvement on the old-fashioned security slot.

Business Services Industry

Tied Down

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2001 by Amanda C. Kooser

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