Physical locks versus software locks

[spaceboots06]

I just read a thread on Undercover and it reminded me of a question I wanted to ask earlier this week.

I'm going to college in september and it seems as if a Kingston lock is not a good choice. There are a number of things on youtube including yanking the notebook, pulling on the lock itself and using cardboard to open the lock. This makes physical locks look bad. Would software be a good alternative? How about lojack for laptops? Apparently they'll get your laptop back regardless of where it ended up. If not, they'll give you a grand. Seems like it would be hard to do if it was chopped up like when a thief brings a car to a chop shop.

http://www.lojack.com/pages/laptop.aspx

???

Any help is appreciated.

 

[qpid]

Try getting covered under your parent's homeowner's insurance or get your own renter's insurance. Should be cheap.

Also instead of a software lock try just setting the firmware password.

 

[UltraNEO*]

I just read a thread on Undercover and it reminded me of a question I wanted to ask earlier this week.

I'm going to college in september and it seems as if a Kingston lock is not a good choice. There are a number of things on youtube including yanking the notebook, pulling on the lock itself and using cardboard to open the lock. This makes physical locks look bad. Would software be a good alternative? How about lojack for laptops? Apparently they'll get your laptop back regardless of where it ended up. If not, they'll give you a grand. Seems like it would be hard to do if it was chopped up like when a thief brings a car to a chop shop.

http://www.lojack.com/pages/laptop.aspx

???

Any help is appreciated.

Hmm..

Depends. If you value the contents of the your Laptop, then you wouldn't be leaving unattended, period! And since it's a mobile device, there's absolutely no reasons to leave it unattended IMO.

However.. if you don't mind leaving it around for sticky fingered petty thieves and opportunists, I'd go have the whole machine insured with a reputable company, this way if your pride'n'joy does go for a stroll, your investment is secured.

For data security, perhaps you'd might wanna try the FileVault encryption option under Security in system preferences, at least your data is unaccessible, by others.

From my understanding those 'lojack' software are only as good as the person who programmed them. I'm pretty sure if the system is shut-off, it'll be inoperable/ineffective... though i could be wrong.