Mark Prigg assesses a wide range of kit designed to keep your laptop and data secure
With laptops, iPads and smartphones now an integral part of everyday life, one of the biggest issues facing us all is security. Having your laptop stolen, or losing that USB stick with your latest strategy plan on, is the ultimate nightmare – but if you invest in a few simple gadgets and online services, it really needn’t be the end of the world.
One of the key things when travelling is to try not to look like you’re lugging a hugely expensive laptop around. Avoid the cheap and ugly laptop bag that probably came with it and, instead, look at a designer bag or everyday rucksack that has a laptop sleeve built in – it could save your machine.
It’s also worth stressing the importance of backups with any mobile device – always assume your property is going to get lost, and make sure every file is backed up, in the office and, ideally, online as well. That way, not only will you be able to travel without your laptop on many occasions and simply access your files from another machine, but you’ll also be able to restore your computer more easily if something goes wrong.
The explosion in “cloud” or online storage has really revolutionised backup, and it’s well worth investigating. Using services such as Google Documents and Mail mean that you can save on expensive office software suites, as well as access your work from anywhere.
It’s also essential to check the security settings on your hardware. Always import that latest anti-virus software, and install every update for your machine’s operating system. You should also check your wifi router – many still use older settings, known as WEP, which can be hacked into easily. If possible, change to WPA2 encryption – not only will it prevent your neighbours from piggybacking on your wireless to get online, but it will save you from being held responsible for anything illegal they do, and stop them browsing your holiday snaps and work documents.
Knomo Cholet bag | £155 | knomobags.com
If you carry a laptop around regularly, one of the best investments you can make to protect it is a laptop bag that doesn’t look like a laptop bag. Knomo’s are among the most stylish around, and manage to combine designs that you’ll want to show off, even without a computer in, with the padding and security necessary to keep your machine and accessories, such as power cables, safe.
One of my favourites in the women’s range is the Cholet, which looks just like any other high-end designer handbag but manages to secrete a padded laptop sleeve inside. Knomo also makes its bags in a range of colours and sizes, catering for everything from iPads and netbooks to big-screen laptops. They’re not cheap but they last very well, and are a stylish way to transport your gadgets without attracting too much attention.
PROS Great looks, lots of room to store your kit
CONS Not the cheapest bag on the market
Iomega Home Media Network hard Drive 500GB/1TB/2TB | From £111 | go.iomega.com
If you have more than one computer at home, or want to back up your data easily to an external drive, then a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device is the gadget you need. It’s effectively a small server with a large hard drive that connects to your wireless router. Once plugged in, you can access it from any machine on the same network. It also acts as an iTunes server and can even play back video files from a games console.
Iomega’s NAS is simple to set up. A special webpage lets you configure everything and, if you own a Mac, you can also use it to store Time Machine backups. Iomega allows you to access your drive over the internet once you’ve created a secure password, and it’s incredibly useful, meaning you’ll never forget that important presentation again. For anyone serious about home computing, or ready for their first office server, this is well worth a look.
PROS Simple to use, stylish and unobtrusive
CONS No online backup option
Integral Crypto 8GB USB key | £41 | misco.co.uk
USB sticks offer a simple way of getting files from machine to machine. However, they are incredibly insecure, and also extremely simple to lose – as many government agencies will attest to. The Integral Crypto USB Key gets around these problems by building in military-grade 256-bit encryption. Every time you plug it in, it triggers the security software, and you’re prompted for a password that unlocks it.
Set-up is extremely simple, and the software even forces you to mix upper- and lower-case letters along with numbers to create a secure password (rather than your dog’s name or birthday). It has an 8GB capacity, so all but the biggest of files should fit.
The Integral is a neat solution to the problem of moving files, and if you really have to carry sensitive data with you, this is a great way of doing it. However, bear in mind that the USB is still small and easy to leave behind – it’s just reassuring to know that if you do lose it, nobody else will be able to get into it.
PROS Top-notch security
CONS Small so still easy to lose
Freecom Toughdrive sport 320Gb | £83 | misco.co.uk
For large amounts of data, it can sometimes be an easier option to carry an external hard drive from home to the office, or even to clients to plug into their machines. However, this is a big security risk as the majority of drives are not encrypted. Freecom’s Toughdrive Sport has a secure hardware 256-bit password protection feature – your password is encrypted and stored in a chip, and the data on the drive can be accessed only by entering the correct one. It’s a very secure solution, and the drive is also rugged enough to take being thrown about in a backpack on the way to a meeting.
PROS Secure and strong
CONS Large and ugly
Kensington MicroSaver DS keyed ultra-thin notebook Lock | US$57 | kensington.com
Probably the simplest and most effective deterrent for your laptop, the Kensington lock lets you secure your machine easily to a desk leg or other anchor point. It’s not going to put off the most determined thieves, but will certainly make opportunists reconsider their plans to lift your machine. Crucially, this new version is incredibly slim, so won’t ruin the sleek lines of your computer. It’s also small enough to transport everywhere, is simple to use and, while more of a deterrent than anything else, should still be part of every regular traveller’s kit.
PROS Easy to transport, simple to use
CONS Cable could be cut
E-books
Amazon revolutionised the way we buy physical books, and after a bit of a false start in the UK (its original Kindle e-book reader didn’t receive an official release here) it looks set to do the same – along with Apple – for the e-book market.
Amazon’s new Kindle, costing from £109, means that dumping your paper books for an electronic equivalent is finally an option. The tiny gadget, the size of a bookshelf novel but incredibly thin, is something of an anomaly in the current digital world. Instead of chucking every feature in, it focuses on one element only – reading.
Thanks to an e-ink screen that really does look like paper, it makes reading far more enjoyable than on any other display. The easy page-turning buttons even top a printed book and it can store up to 3,500 tomes. But if you don’t want to buy a Kindle, don’t worry – Amazon has also made the Kindle software available on smartphones (it’s particularly impressive on the iPhone 4’s screen), desktop computers and iPads, all of which have access to the same 415,000-book library.
There are also a lot of competitors out there – Apple’s own iBook stores, and the online arms of everyone from WHSmith to Waterstones, not to mention e-book readers from Sony, Cool-er and others. So it seems that for the frequent traveller, the paper book may finally have some real electronic competition – especially if Amazon sticks to its promise of always making its e-book editions cheaper.
Mozy | From £5 per month | mozy.co.uk
Should the unthinkable happen and you lose your laptop or, even worse, your backup is destroyed, then the ever-growing world of “cloud computing” can come to the rescue. In a nutshell, this relies on vast farms – many bigger than several football fields – stuffed with servers connected online via high-speed connections.
For users, this means a cheap, almost limitless supply of storage to back up your files. Mozy is one of the user-friendly services, and once up and running, you can leave it to automatically and regularly back up your information. Should you lose your laptop, simply log in from another one (or indeed any computer) to view and download your files.
While many firms have off-site storage in place, for small companies and home users, Mozy provides the same peace of mind – and in this age, where so much of our entertainment is digital, this is a good way to avoid spending hours re-ripping your CD collection into MP3 files or mourning the loss of irreplaceable photos.
PROS Simple, inexpensive
CONS Can’t back up network drives
Dropbox | Free for up to 2GB | dropbox.com
Carrying laptops, USB sticks and external drives around creates an inherent security risk, as well as being annoying and fiddly. Dropbox lets you store your most important documents online and access them from anywhere – even from your iPhone. It’s a brilliant idea, and incredibly simple to use. Once you’ve set up an account (it’s free for up to 2GB of storage, then US$9.99 per month for 50GB, or US$19.99 for 100GB), you simply drag files to and from your Dropbox account, which appears as a folder on your machine, storing them in “the cloud”. You can even select files and folders to share with others, and the whole system is extremely secure.
It’s perfect for day-to-day use, and while for big backups Mozy is better, Dropbox is one of the best ways to keep your files safe and secure, yet access them easily from anywhere.
PROS An elegant, simple solution for sharing files between machines
CONS 2GB limit on free version
