Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 20

A lot more people are getting laptops these days, so I sometimes get asked what should be done to protect the data on a laptop. Quite often, business and government employees carry a lot of sensitive data around with them on their laptops. If the laptop gets stolen, who knows who may see the data on your machine. Unfortunately, if someone is really determined to see what's on your laptop, not much can stop them, but you should at least make it as difficult as you can to access it. This will stop all but the most determined of thieves.

For starters, make sure your laptop was originally formatted with the NTFS file system, and that you have a login password. A lot of people think that as long as you have a login password, no one can see what's on the laptop. If you ever want to see how wrong that idea is, give me a call for a five minute demonstration, 'cause that's about how long it'll take me to access your stuff.

You could think about adding encryption to your files, but encrypting files can be a pain and it usually doesn't take long for an administrator to break an encryption code. There are exceptions, but if you know enough about computers to know about those, you're ignoring most of what I say anyway.

I find one of the more effective ways of keeping people out of a laptop is called a CMOS, or power-on password. It can be very difficult to break, especially with newer machines. When you enter one of these passwords, you turn on your machine and getting nothing but a blank screen, telling you to enter your password. Nothing on the laptop works until you enter the right password - including the floppy and CD drives that can be used to bypass your login password. The problem with a CMOS password is: if you forget it, it can take some serious work to get back into your machine.

If you'd like some help setting up a CMOS password, give us a call.

Stay tuned next week for some tips on using email while you're travelling.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.