How to ease the pain of losing a laptop
What is even more important than the laptop itself is the information on it. You can replace the computer, but the information stored on it may be impossible to recover.
What you need to know:
- The theft of laptops is quite common: more than two million laptops are stolen each year.
- In the lifetime of a laptop, it has one in 10 chances of ending up in the wrong hands.
Few situations are as troubling as going to your office, car, or turning your head at a public place only to find that your laptop is gone.
The theft of laptops is quite common: more than two million laptops are stolen each year. In the lifetime of a laptop, it has one in 10 chances of ending up in the wrong hands. Maybe you have already suffered this unfortunate fate, or it could befall you in the future.
As they say, defence is the best offence. We should always assume that our laptop will be stolen and therefore stand guard to protect our treasured information. Importantly, we should plan on what to do if it is stolen.
The first step is to install tracking software on the laptop. The tracking software is critical in finding the location of a lost device. Tracking software can also remotely destroy the information on the laptop if the thief attempts to access it.
“Prey Project” is one of the most popular tracking software for laptops and mobile phones. It has both a free and a premium version.
Secondly, you need to know the IP address of your laptop. The IP address uniquely identifies your computer. If you lose your laptop and you type in its IP address on the tracking software, you can see its location, just like a car tracking software keeps track of a car which has a tracking device.
The IP address is also a valuable piece of information to give police or other investigative agencies while reporting the loss of a laptop. The police could use the IP address to find the location of your equipment and hopefully catch the thief.
Secure your information
Furthermore, record the model and serial numbers of your laptop. These details will help when filing a police report and will make it easier to identify your equipment if found.
Thirdly, Windows 10 comes with the useful “Find My Device” that allows you to always track your computer.
This feature doesn’t work by default, but if you want to protect your laptop in the future, enable it by going to the setting of your computer and activating it.
What is even more important than the laptop itself is the information on it. You can replace the computer, but the information stored on it may be impossible to recover. Therefore, follow the inviolable data management rulebook: regularly make a copy of your information. You can restore it on any other computer.
Having a copy of your information secured can make a devastating loss a little bit more bearable.
Lastly, if you have been using the stolen computer to access your online bank accounts or other critical digital resources, call your bank, and ask them to keep an eye on your accounts just in case the crook is out to log into them.
Wambugu is an informatician. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Samwambugu2
