Cubicle Security For Laptops, Electronics?

kamikasee writes "I recently found out that I'm going to be moved from an office to a cubicle. The cubicle area is not very secure, and I'm worried about things wandering off. My boss has offered to buy some equipment to help me secure things, but so far I haven't found anything that fits my requirements. Google and Amazon searches are overwhelmed by lockable key cabinets and larger pieces of furniture. Here are some of the requirements: The main issue with traditional solutions (e.g. locking things in a drawer) is convenience. I use a laptop with a second LCD monitor. There's also an external keyboard and mouse and a USB hard drive. I leave my laptop on at night so I can remote-desktop into it, so I'm not really happy about putting it in a drawer (no ventilation), plus I don't like the idea of having to 'unharness' everything every time I want to put it away. I don't trust cable locks. Besides, cable locks won't help me secure my the USB drive and other electronics that might wander off. The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics. If it was big enough, I could stick my laptop into it at night (while leaving it running) and feel confident that it would still be there in the morning. I'd be open to other types of solutions. Surely someone else must have dealt with this problem."

Comments

Never dealt with that sort of problem

[BadAnalogyGuy]

I've never personally dealt with that sort of problem. It's probably because I work with professionals.

YMMV.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[LinuxInDallas]

And that is what we though where I work as well. Here's the deal, how professional are the janitors? How about maintenance workers that are on-site tmie to time. Can you really trust them? We also had issue with someone that was able to sneak into the building over lunch one day and wander off with people's belongings. Forget the people you actually work with, they probably are completely trustworthy. it's everyone else that can gain access to your building that you should worry about.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[raehl]

Fortunately, I happen to live in an area of the country where pretty much everyone is trustworthy. But on top of that, we have a whole bunch of security, so you'd have a pretty tough time making it into the building unnoticed.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[indiechild]

Exactly right. I don't know why everyone is assuming he's afraid of his fellow co-workers being thieves, that's unlikely to be the security threat. The real threat is from casual visitors or even con-artists/thieves who weasel their way into the building.

Also, regardless of who steals the stuff, you're unlikely to ever find out who did it. So prevention is best.

Some of my co-workers have personal webcams attached to their PCs that record 24x7. I trust my co-workers completely, but stuff has been stolen in the past, and I think it's because we have such a large number of strangers and visitors constantly coming and going.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[elronxenu]

That may be so, but there are different risks involved.

The first, that "nobody will steal anything because they're all professional" is a true statement until somebody breaches the trust that other employees obviously have. You could ignore the risk until something goes missing, but do you want to be the first one affected by theft? Think of it as a trade-off. You're trading off the benefit of leaving your wallet out in the open versus the risk of somebody taking it. If your wallet is taken you are likely to be mightily inconvenienced - not just the stolen cash, but you also have to cancel your credit cards. If your keys are taken you have to change your home locks. And so on. IMHO, the balance of the cost-benefit equation for a wallet falls firmly on the side of "the benefit is small but the inconvenience of a problem is large".

The second risk is that objects or data may be accessed and returned, and you'd never know it. Does that USB thumb drive contain sensitive information, information which all employees are not entitled to access? You wouldn't know if somebody took the drive, copied its contents and returned it. Or if they copied your credit card number (or even scanned your card's mag stripe). If you lose a wallet you can take positive steps to mitigate the inconvenience - steps which you cannot take if you don't know there's been a breach of trust.

I think the OP's best strategy is to minimise the amount of personal kit which needs to be used in the office and left overnight. If the company owns the laptop and monitors then retention of the physical device becomes the company's responsibility. I don't see why the USB thumb drive needs to be used overnight - don't computers have their own storage? :-)

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[ILuvRamen]

so put a label on the top that says "this laptop equipped with GPS security tracking device" even though it's not true. It won't stop people from stealing peripherals though. I'd suggest a motion detecting, picture taking webcam left on all night. That way if they really are dissuaded from taking the laptop cuz of the fake label, the webcam will take the pic of anyone who walks in and sets off the motion trigger and you can see who stole your stuff the next day.
That and ink bomb traps everywhere!

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[sdgoat]

I've worked for a couple of fairly large companies where laptops have been stolen. Always seems to be the mail guy coming in after hours. One guy got around 15 one night. However those laptops with cable locks were never lifted, it was always those that were just sitting there asking to be stolen. So while the 'professionals' you worked with might not be stealing the equipment, you can't always trust some of the lower paid hired help.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[lgw]

Having your driver's license stolen could be the biggest inconvenience of all. In a state that tries to comply with REAL-ID (like California), you can't get a driver's license without a passport (or a drivers license from another state) as ID. If you don't have a passport and your wallet is stolen, it could take quite some time to get that sorted out! And in the meantime you can't fly, thanks to out blatant disregard of the 4th amendment at airports these days.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[vonFinkelstien]

Here is Sweden it is very common for drug addicts or organized crime gangs to break into schools and businesses at night to steal computers. LCD monitors and laptops are prime targets. The private school I teach at has had the teachers' room broken into 4 times in the past 2 years. Now, I put my monitor on the floor every night so thieves can't just look in the window and see easy pickings.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[bogess]

I dunno, but if my boss was willing to pop for something to secure my stuff and I was paranoid about it disappearing, I would opt for a soloution from an older, gentler period of time. Have him pop for a Roll top desk, for instance. Following the nature of your request, one with a lock (most had them). Then you would have everything you described with the added benefit of a classy looking piece of furniture.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Likely as not, the janitors also have keys or access to his current office, and would already have made off with stuff if they wanted.

I will say, though, that cables do nothing for laptops. I work at a college, and we had laptops and desktops stolen from a room, even with Kensington cables attached. The thief (or thieves) just jerked hard, and the thin metal casing around the "Kensington" port bent and they walked off with all the equipment they wanted. The older-style adhesive pad connectors were just as bad.

But, a Kensington cable will help keep honest people honest. And loss of any of the described equipment is the company's issue, not the author's. (Unless it's the author's personally-purchased equipment.)

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Anonymous Coward]

i agree with the working with professionals. if you are so security conscious, why are you remotely connecting to your laptop? you apparently know nothing of security and are lazy to boot. take the laptop home a VPN in to the office to access files you need.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[smurfsurf]

It is not about getting in unnoticed. Delivery, maintenance, janitors, cleaning people, refilling the candy and sode machines etc. These are the people he is talking about. And the thiefs inpersonating them.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[waterford0069]

I work with professionals as well, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a cleaner we don't know going through our work area at night; or perish the thought, some member of the public sneaks into the building (as the building is emptying out) to go "shopping" for satisfy their habits.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[jomegat]

You can still fly without a RealID, but you will be subjected to some extra love from the TSA.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Anonymous Coward]

as a computer builder may i suggest a fingerprint scanner.that would resolve all your problems.a little expensive,but would give you a piece of mind.we get pc's in all the time who people have hacked from inside their office and stolen all of their files,etc.thank you and hope this resolves your delima and it will/www.revolutionpc.net

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[cc1984_]

how professional are the janitors? How about maintenance workers that are on-site tmie to time. Maybe I'm alone here, but where I work, the maintenance workers and cleaners kinda have the keys to all the rooms anyway to do their jobs (like emptying the bins etc.)

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[eggoeater]

Some of my co-workers have personal webcams attached to their PCs that record 24x7. I did that for a while. It used motion-sensor software that was included with the Logitech camera and worked really well.
I never had anything stolen, but it was amazing the number of people that would pop into my cube and look around for a pen or something.

I eventually ended up taking my laptop home every night, and leaving a tower in my cube I could remote into if necessary.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Sandbags]

Wether we're talking about employee theft or the night janitor, there's a simple, and relatively inexpensive option, and it's called video survaillence.

Place a few cameras around (even a few fake ones!), connect them to a video hub/DVR. To make employees happy and help them feel reassured that no one is contstantly watching the footage to see who is and who is not working efficiently or whatever, you place the kit inside a closet and place 2 or 3 differnt locks on it and give 1 of those keys to the HR rep or IT guy, one to an upper level VP, and one to a representative of an employee formed comittee. Now for someone to see who swiped a stolen item, these 3 people neet to come together to unlock the door... now no one is poking around the survailence system.... Another good option is giving the key to the closet to IT, but the password to the DVR to an employee relations comittee member. Since the DVRs are member or workgroup devices, not domain systems, IT won't be able to change the password and management can't log on to the system at all (since it's for theft protection, the only occasion they should have to log on is when a theft happens, and employee relations should be involved.

If that's still not good enough for your employees, only put cameras in hallways and near enterances, so they're not under full time survaillence, but if someone swipes something, we should have a good idea of who was in the neighborhood at the time it went missing.

Anything large being stolen will be obvious (monitors, printers, etc). That stuff doesn't belong to you anyway, it belongs to the company, and if you're backing up your data, what do you care?

If you ARE using your own equipment in the office building for work purposes, get HR or your finance department to assure you it's covered under a company insurance policy and then if it walks off, it's still their problem, and you get free replacement kit. For everything else, check with your homeowners or renters insurance policy. You can usually get a rider for a couple bucks a month that covers personal device loss and damage without a deductable. (you do have to file a police report to get a claim, but lets face it, sometimes people see police at your cubicle, and devices mysteriously re-appear...)

I've also been in buildings where security asset tags every item coming in the building (even things like picture frames!). Going in or out of the building becomes a slight pain since you need to go through metal detectors, and security checks, but for some businesses, especially those dealing with large numbers of traveling employees or lots of short term contract labor, it's worth it.

On another note, if you don't trust your fellow employees, seek employment elsewhere or don't bring shiny things to the office...

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[ArsenneLupin]

We also had issue with someone that was able to sneak into the building over lunch one day and wander off with people's belongings. I've heard a much worse story. At my boyfriend's place, somebody managed to sneak into the building and rape one of the employees.... They did catch the perp, but boy what a scary thought that something like this can happen...

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[gstoddart]

I've never personally dealt with that sort of problem. It's probably because I work with professionals.

It hasn't happened in our office for a few years, but we've had laptops, digital cameras, entire servers, and I think a wallet once that all walked out of the office.

It strangely went away after someone was fired for unrelated reasons, but nobody ever did *prove* who did it.

It sucks, but in some places (especially if there is no video) things do walk out of offices never to be seen again. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has worked in an office where things have gone missing.

Cheers

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[BadAnalogyGuy]

I wonder if we worked together. Did this person ever trip a girl who was running down the hall?

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[gstoddart]

I wonder if we worked together. Did this person ever trip a girl who was running down the hall?

Not that I recall. But, he did send nasty emails to customers, and sent them as if they had been sent from another guy. The other guy almost got fired/in shit before someone did some forensics and realized that the ass-hat who eventually got fired had faked up the messages.

Very strange saga, much drama. Definitely some anti-social behavior happening.

Cheers

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[tftp]

It depends. I work at a place where a janitors' badge doesn't open the door to my room. So s/he can enter and clean only during regular hours, when people are present to observe what's happening. Most of security people can't enter either.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[metamatic]

Yeah, well, bully for you. I work for IBM. I was in a cubicle for a while, and had several items stolen.

Sure, the other people who work in the office are professionals. The people who clean the floors, no so much.

(Opinions mine, not IBM's.)

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[penguin_dance]

Usually I find the LAST people to suspect are the cleaning folks. They know they're going to be the first ones scrutinized if something comes missing! However, often the security guards are contracted out and the company they work for doesn't always screen them. I've seen a lot of cases where these guards have criminal backgrounds.

The only problem I had with thieves was a company I contracted for (wine and alcohol distrib). I left a 6-pack of Diet coke in the fridge the first day and it was gone the next. My manager apologized, saying she forgot to tell me not to leave anything in there because the night shift raided the refrigerator. Had I been working their longer than a few days, it would have been time to break out the old brownie with the chocolate ex-lax recipe. What really got me was no one in management seemed to care that if their night shift would steal from other employees, how much hooch and other things were walking out of there?

Ironically, their slogan at that time was "McK_____ People Care!"

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[rubycodez]

ah, people who are too busy fleecing customers to steal from coworkers. I understand.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[cayenne8]

"Some of my co-workers have personal webcams attached to their PCs that record 24x7. "

That's nice for places without security interests. Most places I've worked don't like ANY type of camera around...sometimes not even cell phones with them are allowed.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[fataugie]

Yeah, well not to rain on your parade, but in a past life (15 yrs ago) I worked in a bank. We had someone stealing stuff from the marketing dept. (they had all the good electronics). So security set up survellance cameras and a VCR to tape the criminal.

Say it with me.....what do you think was missing the next day? That's right, not only the electronic bait, but the cameras and the VCR.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never personally dealt with that sort of problem. It's probably because I work with professionals.

That's the kind of flippant response to security that gets people killed soldier. The poster has asked a good question about the single most important issue that faces IT professionals today: security. It's a tricky subject that I've been refining for years. Forget locks and passwords, they're all bullshit. What you need is concrete--lots of concrete. At the end of each day sink your laptop into a 3'x3' block of cement. That'll keep most of the fuckers out. Then for good measure set fire to the building on your way out the door. By the next morning, after the firemen have left, all your precious secrets will still be safe and sound in your block of concrete. Now you can sleep easy.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Farakin]

You should look into the laptop security devices that retail locations use. it locks it down, leaving the ports open and has a bar across it. Bolts into your desk.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Sandbags]

15 years ago your video survailence system was not integrated into your alarm system... Try to dismantle or disrupt modern video systems, and they auto-alert via pager, e-mail, or other method you configure. You can even set them to trigger the building's alarm system.

Of course, VCRs are easy to steal, but the network DVR in the server room is not, unless you thief had a key to the server closet... They can steal the cameras, but the idea is the taping system has to be secure. Also, every camera has to be in the field of view of another, so when they tamper with one, they're on camera doing it...

Also, a theft like that, there had to be fingerprints everywhere! Dis-mounting several cameras, opening several doors, unscrewing bolt-down ties, moving ladders, the cops must have been complete morons not to catch that guy, even if years ago! ..and a bank that didn't already have security cameras, and he had that much access? Why didn't he take THE MONEY!?!?!

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[EEBaum]

Now, I put my monitor on the floor every night so thieves can't just look in the window and see easy pickings.

An easier solution might be to get some blinds or curtains for your windows.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Why didn't he take THE MONEY!?!?!

Money's in the vault. Most banks don't keep the marketing guys in there (even if they should).

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[Glonoinha]

No joke. If anybody reading down this far wants a reality check of how the real world works (yes, even your office) - stay late one night after 5pm working in your cube. Continue to work on your computer for a few more hours. It only takes one night working the late shift to get the rude awakening with respect to just how tight 'security' is in your office.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[JaBob]

As a substitute custodian for the school district where I live (tuition doesn't pay itself), I can tell you that there are some people that don't clean some of the tech rooms for just that reason. And the some of the ones that do still clean the computer labs and such won't touch a damn thing in there except to vacuum/sweep or collect the trash - and we generally never take boxes laying around unless it's clearly marked trash for the same reason - It's too easy to get blamed so it's better to leave it be and have someone complain that it was never cleaned or taken out then to get blamed for theft or stuff being broken.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[toddestan]

I've never had a problem with "large ticket" items. Computers, monitors, laptops, things like that tend to stay put. My problem is the smaller stuff like basic tools. Screwdrivers, pliers, hex wrenches, staplers, and things like that have an extremely low vapor pressure. I'm sure a lot of it is not malicious, in the sense that they need a Philip's and "Oh look, there's one there I can use sitting on that table!", and then they forget to put it back when they are done. Though on the other hand, for some people the word "borrow" might as well mean "have" when they ask if they could "borrow" something because it goes straight into their stash when they are done using it and it's up to you to ask for it back.

The amazing thing though is that some stuff just constantly vanishes, resulting in the company purchasing more tools every so often because there simply aren't any around anymore. I know that somewhere in the company there is a drawer with about 150 sets of hex wrenches in it, it's the only explaination.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[travisbean]

I get the point of posts like this but I find the tone to be incredibly rude and classist. "Can you really trust them?" As a product of a blue collar family I find this insinuation that blue collar workers are inherently less trustworthy than my cubemates particularly distasteful. This extends into our day to day interactions with the "support staff". I've always noticed amongst my coworkers two types of people: those treat the janitorial staff like they are invisible and therefore sub-human, and those who take the time to get to know them, or at least acknowledge their presence. Maybe if we treated the "unprofessional" workers in our buildings with the same level of basic human respect we dole out for our other cubesters, thefts might go down, eh?

White collar workers are just as guilty only in subtler ways. Every company I've worked at it seems like the Support Desk guys were always taking home the "broken" laptops as "scrapped".... hmm... I once had a disgruntled support guy tell me "They have no idea you have this laptop. Don't bother turning it in when you leave".

In regards to the original post? Yeah, paranoid. Or fishing for a reason to keep his lofty office.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[NerveGas]

The professionals you work with aren't the problem. The cleaning crew is a problem. And, people who simply work their way into the building to make it down a row of cubicles, take what they can and dash are the problem.

One incident in our office involved a girl who made her way in, and spent less than thirty seconds to make it down a row of cubicles, get a dayplanner out of one, and get out. And that sort of thing is a lot more common than you would think.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[NerveGas]

The bank surveillance systems I've seen pictures from universally sucked.

When my office decided to put a camera on every door, I got some $100 cmaeras from Newegg with ethernet ports. Oh, and a $15 POE injector/extractor set for each. The machine doing motion-detection and recording doesn't have to be in the same facility, so there's no way for them to steal the data.

One person came in and stole things, and we turned the pictures to the cops. Both building maintenance and the police said that our pics were better than those from many of the $10,000 systems they see people using.

But, in the end, pictures only get you so far. People can be disguised, or just passing through town. The only way the lady who robbed us got caught (even though her picture was run on the nightly news) was by getting pulled over for speeding a week later, and when the cop looked on her passenger seat, her open purse had almost 50 different checkbooks in it, and he got suspicious. If she weren't so stupid, she would have gotten away just fine. Typically enough, she had only been out of jail for a *month* for doing the same sort of thing.

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[fataugie]

I agree that we're talking about ancient history in security compared to today.

Also, this was the administrative offices, not the hand out the cash part of the bank.
Fingerprints are useless, since the cleaners were the ones suspected, things were wiped down. They just needed more than "I think it's the cleaners" to go on, hence the cameras. I was in the Facilities dept. who had the same access as the cleaners, so we were #2 on the suspect list....

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[notaspunkymonkey]

If you leave your laptop in work all the time so you can remote onto it - how about getting a big ass meaty desktop, bolt that bad boy to the floor - no need for the external storage anymore, as you have more storage in your desktop - worried about backups - install a second disk - or make use of the "network" - bolt your monitors to the desk or attach kensington locks to everything..

or like parent said - get a job in a place where people are not going to steal your stuff....

Re:Never dealt with that sort of problem

[vonFinkelstien]

We've tried to get the landlord to do something, iron bars would be best, but he hasn't. I have curtains, but they're not the best at concealing.

Don't Have stealable stuff

[temojen]

Why do you have a laptop if you don't take it with you? What do other people in the cube farm do? Why do you have your own equipment at work?

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[nickj6282]

I was kind of wondering this myself. If your boss is moving you from a locked office to an open cube then it sounds like his problem if his employees steal his equipment from your desk.

If you are bringing personal items (USB drive, iPod, cellphone, etc.) to work with you there are a few options:

1. Leave this stuff at home
2. Don't let it out of your sight and take it with you when you leave for lunch (this is what I do with my iPod/cellphone/etc. when working, although I can leave it out on my desk in plain sight and it will still be there later because my coworkers are not douchebags)
3. Keep these items in a plain unassuming backpack under your desk
4. Lock these items in a desk drawer when you are in the office and don't leave them at work

Also, why do you have a laptop if you're just going to leave it in the office when you go home? I've worked at places where that was grounds for dismissal. Don't they have a VPN where you work?

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[pavon]

My main machine is a laptop, and I have never once brought it home - if I need to work I'll be at the office, billing time. The reason I have a laptop is because I am on several projects, and spend time in 5 labs spread across two buildings, depending on what equipment I need and who I am working with. I also get sent on business trips once or twice a year, and I'll bring my laptop with me then. Even if you only work out of the office once a month, the hassle saved by not having to keep files in sync between multiple computers/flashdrives makes a laptop much more convenient than a desktop.

That said, if he was planning on working at home, I don't see why he wouldn't just take the laptop home rather than leaving it on. Unless he wasn't planning on working at home, but just leaves the computer on in case he gets the odd "emergency" call. That I could definitely understand. I wouldn't want to drag my laptop home everyday if I wasn't planning on using it - it just becomes a liability then.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people know that it is much faster to vpn to the company and term to your computer at work and work off it. Very little data flow back and forth over the net since it is all taking place at your worksite where all the network resources are. VPN in fine for email but not if you are running data rich applications over it.

-scott (not anonymous, just don't care to make an account :)

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[sfbiker]

That said, if he was planning on working at home, I don't see why he wouldn't just take the laptop home rather than leaving it on.

I think you answered your own question:

I wouldn't want to drag my laptop home everyday if I wasn't planning on using it - it just becomes a liability then.

Why lug the laptop home everday on the train/bus/bike/etc if he doesn't have to? I think you'll find that most people reading Slashdot already have a computer at home, so why bother dragging home the laptop from work if he can rdesktop in from home? I have a laptop on my desk at work that I never take home, I only use it when I need to visit one of our remote offices. I don't particularly like working on the laptop itself, I prefer the external monitor + keyboard that I have on my office desk.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[symbolic]

Laptops are good for more than just taking them home every night - as I'm sure you know, they're also great during meetings when you have to show something - like code reviews, presentations, etc.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[pavon]

I've never had all that great of an experience with remote desktop outside of a LAN environment. Given the choice of using remote desktop or working directly on the laptop, I would happily lug the laptop home. Oh, and I was also assuming that working on company documents or connecting to the company VPN (not counting remote desktop) using personal machines was verboten. I suppose that might not be true everywhere.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Al Dimond]

I think the attitude that someone shouldn't be concerned about theft of company property just because it's not his own stuff is short-sighted. Even if the guy is concerned only with his own well-being, having stuff stolen hurts productivity (which reflects poorly on him even if not his fault) and could be a security risk for the company. Deterring theft might help the company, and in the event things were stolen and his was protected, might even get him noticed.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

nickj6282 just made a bet that if no one answered with a good response from ask slashdot then he could keep his office. He is really just being a big whiny baby about losing his office.

GROW UP.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[eonlabs]

In my experience, as long as the stuff in question wasn't blatantly money, nobody's really taken anything.

I've seen a thumb drive have 'new' pictures on it when opened up, but most of the time people used to take the cubes apart or put them back together in new and unusual ways.

If you're dealing with sensitive information, just don't do anything stupid. If there's a risk, don't leave it out.

Get a backpack. Take it with you. It's a LAPTOP.
If you can't, and it's the company laptop, I probably wouldn't worry about it so much.

If it's a personal laptop, and you won't take it home, I don't know what to say to you.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Fred_A]

Why do you have a laptop if you don't take it with you? Quite. Easy solution : don't use a laptop, find a DEC PDP 10 on eBay. Nobody will steal that. And if somebody somehow does, you'll notice immediately when it's disconnected by the way the whole city block's lights suddenly brighten.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[The Fanta Menace]

If your boss is moving you from a locked office to an open cube then it sounds like his problem...

If my boss was moving me from an office into a cubicle, I'd be looking for another job. That's just insulting.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Dekortage]

If my boss was moving me from an office into a cubicle, I'd be looking for another job. That's just insulting.

It depends. Awhile back, a company I worked for moved locations, and everyone was given a cubicle except senior VPs and the president. It was called an "open office environment". I suppose it was still insulting, but it was not personal...

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Because sometimes people go home and do things OTHER than work. This actually is fairly common...

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anon in case the coworker reads this...

At my office we've just moved into a cube farm. Some of us came from cubes, so it's not a big deal. One coworker had her own office; she's been fun to watch.

She's been bitching up a storm about how her cube, the door of which is visible from the pathway between cubes so people walking by can see what she's doing, isn't appropriate.

So far, she tried the following "remedies":

• Screaming at our manager that she doesn't have the room she needs to work
• Moving empty file cabinets to block the entrance to her cube
• Hanging a blanket across the entrance to her cube with a handmade "keep out" sign attached
• extending her lunch break from her traditional two hours to three, saying it takes her longer to get to the gym now

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[EriDay]

At Steelcase largest maker of those cubicle systems, even the CEO is in a cubicle.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, your company supplied laptop may be stolen from your desk. If it happens, ask for another one. The action of going above and beyond what the company requires for securing the device is NOT your responsibility. The problem comes from the fact that you are not the only one in the building with a cube or with company property that may be stolen. If individuals start implementing many different solutions, it becomes hard to track the cost and effectiveness of those solutions and to do a risk assessment if the costs are worth the losses. Sounds kind of harsh but if an office manager or equivalent makes a decision about security, they should be able to justify why they made that decision. I would like to think that the person responsible those things would have a better idea about the overall security than joe random cube dude.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[captaindomon]

I worked for a big company for a while (Fortune 100, 60,000+ employees). They found out one of the guys I worked with didn't have a pay grade high enough for him to have an office. So they moved him into a cubicle and turned his office into a storage room. Now THAT's insulting.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[captaindomon]

Yeah, but I bet that's one DAMN FINE CUBICLE.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[pbrammer]

Since when were laptops designed to be on 24x7?

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

A programmer being productive is programming, a network engineer being productive is doing some network engineering. Either of these guys spending time on physical security is not being productive and they are now doing some one else's work. How about this situation... Does your network engineer or lead programmer help out on the tier 1 help desk? Why not, they are capable of it. They are NOT tier 1 technicians. Sure, they will eventually figure out how to merge that mail field into that spreadsheet but it takes more time and is not efficient for the person needing the help and the person giving the help. Your reply may be that the tier 1 guy sucks. Well you know why he sucks? Because your network engineer is always taking the hard calls and masking the fact that the tier 1 guy sucks. Instead of fixing the tier 1 guys problem, you supplement it with someone else. That is NOT a long term solution.

We had a case here where our tier 1 was changed over to our main office. Our local IT manager was constantly hearing complaints from the users about speed and poor service when calling for support from them. She started giving out our local tier 2 peoples phone numbers for them to call. I mean she just wanted the users to be happy and she went the extra mile right? Three months later another office of ours switched their support to the main office as well. It was a complete nightmare. The main office thought based on our office call volume that they were ready to support the third office as well. They were not. Why? Because our tier 2 was supplementing the lack of knowledge and calls that should have all been going to the central tier 1. Tier 1 was undermanned and not ready for the task and the entire third office suffered because of it. The point is even if you think you are doing something good, you HAVE to look at things from the bigger picture. Our IT manager thought she was being a great person and going the extra mile for our users but in reality, she caused the numbers to be thrown off and helped mask the problem of a weak tier 1 staff. Secondary to that, the tier 2 guys that took the load were doing mixed tier 1 and 2 which means they could not concentrate on tier 2 issues, and did not have time to work up to tier 3 or system administration tasks.

Bottom line, IT engineers in cubes are not physical security personnel. You shoring up your laptops will still cause your cube mates laptop to be stolen. You protected your own little share of company property but other company property that you don't know about or care about in the other floors or in the copy room will still get stolen because you are not there locking it up every day. It should not be every man, woman, and child for themselves. It should be the responsibility of the office manger or the equal to that.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[numbware]

Did he by chance have a red Swingline stapler? If so, was it taken away when you switched to Boston staplers?

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[mapsjanhere]

The larger the company ,the stricter the adherence to perk rules. Can't have a lower pay grade get perks not alloted to him, all the other in his rank immediately would cry for the same treatment. A friend of mine is a senior manager in a German top 10 company, and they are allowing him a new car every 3 years. But while he was allowed the $50,000 Renault he couldn't buy the $46,000 Mercedes he wanted, because Mercedes is only allowed for managers on the next "title grade" (which is still on the same pay grade). People are being rewarded with "image" as much as with cash.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Fulcrum of Evil]

I dunno - I'd just ask for a pay raise and use the new cube for storage.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Rhondohslade]

Anyone whose lunch breaks have gone "from the usual two hour" to three is in need of serious termination with EXTREME prejudice. But that's just me.

Re:Don't Have stealable stuff

[Rhondohslade]

Why do you have a laptop if you don't take it with you? Quite. Easy solution : don't use a laptop, find a DEC PDP 10 on eBay. Nobody will steal that. And if somebody somehow does, you'll notice immediately when it's disconnected by the way the whole city block's lights suddenly brighten.

And....you'll learn how we used to compute back in the prehistoric times with bearskins and stone knives when I first started out with these things almost 40 years ago. It'll be good for you...builds character and gives a sense of perspective.

Simple solution

[Brandybuck]

Simple solution: Don't bring your personal computer or electronic devices to work. If your company's security is such that company property disappears, then that is the company's problem. In real life, this is not a big problem. With the exception of lunches in the refrigerator, coworkers are not going to steal your stuff in a healthy work culture. But to be save, don't leave your personal devices laying around. If it is your own personal computer, however, then get the company to provide you with a company computer.

Re:Simple solution

[Swampash]

Simple solution: Don't bring your personal computer or electronic devices to work. If your company's security is such that company property disappears, then that is the company's problem.

Quoted for great justice.

Company gear, company premises, company's obligation to secure it. if I came in to work tomorrow morning and my desktop computer and monitor were gone, I'd inform our IT manager and tell him to call me when they have been found or replaced.

Seriously, if you're not working for yourself, why on earth would you take your OWN laptop into a place of business? That's retarded.

Re:Simple solution

[Eadwacer]

I understand some companies already make boxes with motherboards and hard drives in them and everything, and they sit on your desk like a big tower, and they're not portable so hardly anyone ever steals them. You could see if your notebook maker has a section that sells specialty items like that...

Re:Simple solution

[BadAnalogyGuy]

It sounds expensive. A special box just for computer parts?

Re:Simple solution

[Marcos Eliziario]

Better yet. If people in your office share your irrational mistrust of cable-locks, put a Rotweiller on your cubicle, and tie him with one of those locks.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, with more analogies next time.

Re:Simple solution

[JonathanR]

Almost like a garage for your car.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

In Australian IT most organizations encourage employees to salary sacrifice their own laptops as it is better for the employee on tax and better for the employer on not having to pay for the employees workstation.

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm.., *looks at his laptop*

To play WoW at lunch?

Re:Simple solution

[Minwee]

"Garage"? Hey, fellas, it's the "ga-rage".

Well, ooh la-dee-da, Mr. Frenchman. Around here, we call it a car hole.

Re:Simple solution

[Pyrophor]

My entire basement is a box just for computer parts... Old dusty ones... I found a 286 the other day. ::: MMMM DOS......

Re:Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Or a condom for your dick.

Re:Simple solution

[vettemph]

...and then he could VNC to his 'Laptop w/USB Storage Device' which is safe and sound at home.

The plus side being that he could keep an eye on his porn... i mean P2P traffic while leaving no trace at work (assuming there is room left on the USB device).

Re:Simple solution

[JonathanR]

Only car analogies parse around here.

A box could easily be stolen

[_merlin]

If you lock the stuff in a box, people could just steal the box and cut it open at their leisure. I think your real problem is that you don't trust your workmates. If your workmates are, in fact, untrustworthy you probably need a new job. Another strong possibility is that you're unduly suspicious of the people around you.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Kamokazi]

Exactly...most security is a theft DETERRENT, not a theft stopper. They are there to keep honest people honest, not stop determined thieves. There are ways around every security system, and most of them are pretty easy if you know what you are doing, especially anything affordable for an individual.

If you're really that paranoid, just use the stinking cable lock, and hide the hard drive somewhere (it shouldn't need much ventilation). If someone really wants to steal your stuff, they're going to steal it unless you bolt a safe to the floor. But I would follow the advice of the other people here by either getting a new job, easing up on the paranoia, or quit throwing a hissy because you lost your office/got demoted.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[evilklown]

A big box could work if you fill it with heavy objects, such as bowling balls, bricks, bags of sand, etc. You can usually get those things pretty cheap and could bring them in little at a time. Depending on the size of the box, this would make it difficult for a single person to steal and, if the box was big enough, it could even be difficult for 2-3 people to steal without towing it off in some sort of vehicle (which would be obvious to everyone around them that they are stealing something). This could also double as extra desk space, although you wouldn't be able to swing your legs underneath.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[dfm3]

I think your real problem is that you don't trust your workmates. If your workmates are, in fact, untrustworthy you probably need a new job.

The submitter doesn't explicitly say that it's his fellow employees that he's worried about. There are plenty of workplace settings that are easily accessible to anyone who just wanders in off of the street.

For example, I work for a university. Typically, graduate students don't have their own offices, but get a cubicle in a large room shared by a dozen or more fellow students. Hundreds of people attend classes in our building every day, and it's not uncommon for computers, textbooks, backpacks, projectors, or anything that is not locked up or chained down to disappear.

In that case, the best solution is to just take anything of value home with you, or lock it up when you leave.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[martinX]

Maybe he's just mad he no longer has a workplace with a lockable door. If you don't trust a Kensington lock, presumably because someone is walking around with boltcutters, maybe you're in the wrong job.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[WK2]

Welcome to the real world. People are not trustworthy. In most jobs, you can not trust your co-workers with a bottle of soda. Not everybody can just pack up and leave their job. And maybe he likes his job? Maybe it pays well. You can't judge something like that based on one fact.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Anonymous Coward]

>>In most jobs, you can not trust your co-workers with a bottle of soda.

Bullshit. You must work in a shitty place. Or everyone hates you there.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[hob42]

Not everyone is blessed with being surrounded by "professionals."

I work in an OR. We have badge-readers on every entrance into the OR, plus another set for the locker rooms, so you can be pretty sure only employees and medical staff are wandering around. However, we have a very diverse population, from neurosurgeons to housekeepers who can't speak English. When I first started, I used to leave my locker unlocked (the combination locks are miserable, it usually takes several tries to get them to open) - until I had a $20 bill stolen out of my wallet. I've also had a flash drive walk off after I accidently left it in a computer for an hour. At least two surgeons have had iPods stolen right out of the OR rooms, either by staff or students. As far as company assets go, several laptop CD drives have disappeared, and even an entire laptop system - including the rolling cart it was cable-locked to - went missing one night.

Upstairs, in the support department, I share an office space with data entry clerks and clinical lead nurses. I know them all and assume I can trust them. This may seem petty, but after one vacation last year I came back to find someone had exchanged my nice Dell keyboard with a very cheap Belkin, complete with a sticky numpad. Most of the keyboards around were the same model, and everyone around claimed innocence. My typing rate was abysmal during the week I waited for I/S to bring me a new keyboard (which I've taken care to document the serial number from, so if it happens again I can hunt down the culprit).

Still, "go find another job" isn't a helpful solution. I do worry about my things being stolen, but that doesn't drive me to find employment elsewhere. I work for the only private non-profit hospital in our region, a hospital that doesn't receive any of the charities, endowments, grants, or state funding that all the other hospitals around us receive, yet consistently has better outcomes than any of them. I have a good boss and friends I enjoy working with. I may not be compensated quite as well here as I would in some other hospitals, but I still make a good wage. No, I won't let a couple of unidentified bad apples spoil the otherwise positive work environment I have - instead I put some effort into securing my personal belongings, and go on about my day.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[darthflo]

Adding the box will dramatically worsen the value/(weight * volume) ratio a casual thief would probably be looking for. Leaving an $2m mainframe stand around in plain sight won't run you into a big risk of it getting stolen; $500k of jewellery right next to it probably won't stay there for long.
It's an over-the-top analogy, but a thief looking to maximize profits from what he can take in a short amount of time using his bag may go for the 2.5 kg $2k notebook, not for the 5 kg locker with a notebook of unknown value.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Bombula]

it's not uncommon for computers, textbooks, backpacks, projectors, or anything that is not locked up or chained down to disappear.

This is where you want eyes in the sky. Seriously, I WANT cameras in the ceiling to discourage theft. It's ludicrous to have to be afraid that some asswipe is going to steal anything "that is not locked up or chained down." Get cameras, and then people just won't be able to get away with it. Then if some moronic grad student is stupid enough to throw away tens of thousands of dollars spent on their degree - and possibly tank their career as well - in exchange for $20 selling used textbooks back to the bookstore, then that's just good entertainment material for fark.com and youtube.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Anonymous Coward]

I think your real problem is that you don't trust your workmates. Completely true, as long as the site is secure! But then if the site isn't secure, then pretty much nothing can help you, a safe can be stolen in its entirety and broken later.

I personally think that this question is reflective of societies problems in general,
"Somebody might hurt me, quick follow/arrest/invade them!", when the better solution is normally
"Why does he want to hurt me?Perhaps I should find out, by talking to him. Wait he doesn't want to hurt me!",
sure there's always a crazy but by actually talking to all the false threats, youd be able to protect yourself more effectively from the real threat.

But I've been told i read into stuff to much.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm assuming the concern here isn't so much for his workmates put perhaps for outsiders, like employees of the cleaning service, or someone sneaking in a door when someone else leaves the office, etc.

That being said, I'm wondering the same as most people above - if you were issued a laptop for work as opposed to a desktop, why not just bring the laptop home. That's what most people issued laptops at my office do.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Mr Z]

If the box is screwed to the desk (with screws that are inaccessible when it is locked), then that ups the ante further. You gotta take the desk.

At some point the deterrent factor becomes large enough. Then again, there are those who try to steal whole ATMs.

Re:A box could easily be stolen

[Rhondohslade]

I don't think the OP is paranoid. Someone really IS following them!

2 words

[Plazmid]

2 words: Mini fridge. Provides ample cooling and looks like something you would have in a typical office. People don't tend to look in a mini fridge for a laptop or data. As long as no one knows that you keep your stuff in it your safe. Maybe put a couple of drinks in there, to hide your laptop or even a secret compartment.

Re:2 words

[rootofevil]

security through obscurity? havent we been over this?

Re:2 words

[Hao Wu]

What do you hide the fridge in?

Re:2 words

[Plazmid]

You don't.

Re:2 words

[Kinky Bass Junk]

I would have thought a mini-fridge would have attracted more theft...

Re:2 words

[pete-classic]

Isn't it obvious? A normal-sized 'fridge.

-Peter

Re:2 words

[Plazmid]

Thats why you put drinks in it, so they get stolen first. Or put stuff in there that no one would ever dare eat or drink, like a moldy sandwich with a bite taken out of it or a soda that is not entirely empty. Don't forget to use an old mini fridge which no one would likely steal.

Re:2 words

[MrShaggy]

Does your fridge run Linux??

Re:2 words

[Plazmid]

It will soon...

Re:2 words

[DrEldarion]

... because if there's one place at work that you can always be sure nothing will get stolen from, it's the fridge.

Re:2 words

[racazip]

If so... you'd better catch it. *ba dum cha*

Re:2 words

[greg1104]

A nice bonus to this solution is that you'll be able to overclock your processor higher.

Re:2 words

[Anonymous Coward]

It's fridges all the way down.

Re:2 words

[Gm4n]

There's one small problem with storing your laptop in a minifridge (besides having less room for beer in it)... Wouldn't a swath of power cables going into your fridge be a little bit of a tipoff? And if they weren't, wouldn't cutting holes in your fridge result in warm beer? Yuck.

Re:2 words

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget to chain the normal-sized fridge down so people don't steal that.

I may sound like I'm joking here (which I half am), but where my dad worked they did do that.

Re:2 words

[flyboy974]

What about the Beer? That's prime chilling space!

Re:2 words

[TheCybernator]

Who ate my Ted sandwich?

Re:2 words

[lgw]

And, of course, you hide the normal-sized fridge in an office building - let's see anyone steal *that*!

Re:2 words

[n3tcat]

I don't know about your office, but in our office a fridge is the least secure environment we have. If you don't put your name (and date, social, blood type, etc) on every item then you might as well have left it out on the secretary's desk.

Re:2 words

[Tortooga]

Of COURSE!!!
I normal fridge in a cube - NOBODY would think that was out of place :-)

webcam

[Riquez]

Get a webcam that records & uploads what's happening inside your cubicle.
Then you can catch the thieves & get your stuff back.

Re:webcam

[kylehase]

How will you secure the webcam from theft or prevent someone from simply blocking the lens with gum, tape, shaving cream...?

Re:webcam

[darthflo]

Two webcams in opposite corners, "seeing" the whole cubicle space including the entry door as well as each other. Works great that way for banks and they store a lot more expensive stuff than you do.
Also, security through obscurity: You don't go around telling your coworkers, the cleaning stuff and that well-dressed guy who doesn't work there yet comes now and then and leaves with a few more laptop bags you do have cameras. Most importantly, you don't tell them where your cameras are. If you're going for the deterrent factor; great; point out one (fake) camera, watch that one, it's surrounding space and the whole cube really, really closely.

Also, if you want to make sure thieves not only get caught but your stuff will remain in the office, link some kind of cam (works great with the ones embedded in notebooks' display bezels) to a screen and either use your notebook's motion sensor (ThinkPads, some Apple devices, I believe newer Toshiba devices, probably others) or monitor the webcam for changes. In the event of something happening send the mugshot of whomever to the screen. Add a message if deemed necessary.

Re:webcam

[CyberKnet]

Aha! I see the thieves were here... and the webcam is still in place!

Stupid thieves.

Now I'll just boot up my trusty laptop to view the video...

@!$!%!!!

Re:webcam

[lewko]

Or wearing.....A hat and sunglasses!

Re:webcam

[Riquez]

How fkin suspicious do you look in your office with a Hat, Sunglasses & can of shaving foam?
Do you also have the fake moustache & trench coat?

Do you shout "Muu ha ha ha harrr" & evoke a thunderclap from your concealed mp3 player & smoke machine?

Jeez, the guy only had a 512MB stick to steal, you already spent $400 on special effects.

Re:webcam

[Degrees]

Two obvious answers: 1) sync software that copies the video files to the network ( + configure the software to make short snapshots), 2) another CPU - the desktop kind, not a laptop that would easily walk away.

I've got four CPUs in my cube, because that's how much work I can keep busy. It's not hard to get an older CPU that someone would otherwise surplus. It's the bottom one in the stack that runs the webcam software. And yes, I've caught co-workers messing around my desk this way. It may not be elegant, but it's cheap and it works.

Easy!

[rindeee]

I recommend Nessman-esque masking tape walls and door. Simply enforce pretend knocking and 'lock' it at night. Problem solved.

Re:Easy!

[gooman]

A co-worker and I built a "Les Nessman office wall and door" to our work area which was a big open room.
We got a lot laughs and comments from visitors. Most would knock on our pretend door.

Our Korean boss did not understand the humor at all.
Since he refused to use our indicated door, one day we bought a pre-hung door and set it up.
Mind you there were no walls, just this door-frame and door to our office in the middle of the big room.

He didn't say a word, but the following Monday the door and the tape on the floor was gone.
There was also a memo about no more personal items of any kind to be brought into work.

Spoil sport

Re:Easy!

[myth_of_sisyphus]

When I worked at Apple, there was a guy who built an igloo with styrofoam over his cubicle. Didn't have a door but it was a nice cubicle-igloo. One night I went to check it out, seeing as how it was 1 am and there was nobody in the building. His office was lined with monitors displaying a trippy acid pattern that had me mesmerized for about 15 minutes. Just the quiet of the office building and the dim lights with the monitors going all loopy and the igloo above created a very serene environment.

Then I heard "Can I help you?" And I jumped. I turned around and there was a bearded guy in a sleeping bag. I said ".....uhhhhhh......sorry" and leaped out of there.

I never did find out who it was or why he did that. I wasn't really supposed to be in that area of the building at that time so asking around was a no-go.

If anybody knows, I'd like to hear it. This was about 1990 in DeAnza 3 or 4.

Re:Easy!

[Kyokushi]

Stallman must have mistaken the apple office for his AI lab (he practically lives there)..... but the years don't match...

Re:Easy!

[dipstick]

No personal items of any kind is clearly carte blanche for you to go into work the next day entirely naked.

Re:Easy!

[R2.0]

"I recommend Nessman-esque masking tape walls and door. Simply enforce pretend knocking and 'lock' it at night. Problem solved."

Never has my sig been more appropriate.

Re:Easy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the no personal articles rule include clothing?

Re:Easy!

[rindeee]

I recommend a tuxedo made entirely of office supplies (post-it notes, tape, copier paper, etc.) seeing as public nudity's illegal and all.

No kidding!

[raehl]

I have not locked the door to my office in years. People leave their child's fund raising goodies out on tables and you just put the money you're supposed to in the envelope if you take something.

Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time?

Or are you just mega-paranoid?

Re:No kidding!

[nacturation]

No kidding indeed. I often leave my wallet on my desk all day (open environment, no cubes) and I'm not even concerned that someone might look at it funny. My guess is that the submitter works in a high school or a prison.

Re:No kidding!

[sleigher]

Well I have worked in offices for years. One time after an office move we came back and a co-workers purse was gone. The whole thing. We were on the 8th floor. Seems someone came in off the street, up the back stairs and got in. Not sure how because the door was locked. Point being that it isn't always co workers who are dishonest. The company got better security on the floor after that.....

Re:No kidding!

[fractoid]

Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time? I'd hazard a guess that it's not people stealing stuff all the time. I'd hazard a guess that it's just something that's happened to the OP, or one of his colleagues, and whoever legally owns the equipment in question, he doesn't feel like seeing hours or days of work wasted by a light-fingered cow-orker.

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

My guess is that the submitter works in a high school or a prison.
... or Australia, which is a mixture of both ;)

Re:No kidding!

[Perf]

... or a police station (why do they have locks on their clothes lockers?)

Re:No kidding!

[lsolano]

... I never thought about it, but, that's a very good point. It really is.
Like doors in those stores that stay open 24x7x365.

Re:No kidding!

[fractoid]

You mean he just wants to safeguard his Iocaine powder?

Re:No kidding!

[Gerzel]

Ok this is easy. Police clothes lockers often have goodies other than clothes, such as mace, handguns, handcuffs and other lovely things. Secondly they are in a police station which often houses not only police but also known and suspected criminals.

Re:No kidding!

[mmyrfield]

It's not the people you work with that are the problem 99% of the time. It's the people who come in off the street posing as someone who is supposed to be there (e.g. clients, supervisors, repair workers etc). They come in undetected and are long gone with valuables before anyone is the wiser.

Re:No kidding!

[lgw]

Probably not a coworker. There's an entire class of criminals who dresses nicely, get past the badge readers on doors just by asking nicely to be let in (works quite consistantly), and just wanders around stealing something valuable. Also, the cleaning staff sometimes decides it's time for some bonus pay.

I worked in one office where *dozens* of laptops were stolen over a period of *weeks* until the security company convinced the cleaning company to fire the guy with the felony theft record. The theft mysteriously stopped at that point.

Thinking "my coworkers are professional, so I need not fear theft" is naive at best.

Re:No kidding!

[fractoid]

This is a good point. Social engineering is so powerful, especially given that most people in large corporations go around in a daze. I worked with a temp. sysadmin for a month or so a while back and I was amazed what information he was able to get (passwords especially, information on ordering, etc) simply by phoning up and asking for it. On the hardware side, cleaners are even more amazing - a company that requires security clearances and background checks will quite happily let some anonymous guy on minimum wage wander around their entire office, eyeballing trade secrets and potentially swiping millions of dollars of hardware if he knows what he's looking for.

Re:No kidding!

[lgw]

Someone in my office tried to talk me into letting him in "to retrieve the badge he dropped" just this week. I know everyone who's normally on my floor, and I didn't know him. The very next person after me let him in (before I could find someone appropriate to deal with him). He was *irate* that I wouldn't help him: after all, he asked politely. That part doesn't bother me, but it turns out he's from corporate IT for my company. That's just scary.

Re:No kidding!

[Aaron Denney]

Secondly they are in a police station which often houses not only police but also known and suspected criminals.

These are occasionally the same people.

Re:No kidding!

[alecwood]

Secondly they are in a police station which often houses not only police but also other suspected criminals.

Re:No kidding!

[Lunarsight]

I have not locked the door to my office in years. People leave their child's fund raising goodies out on tables and you just put the money you're supposed to in the envelope if you take something.

Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time?

Or are you just mega-paranoid?

It's not paranoia - for many industries, it's a legal requirement.

Even when it's not legally required, it's often still good business sense. While the likelihood of robbery is low, in some industries, the ramifications of losing a laptop are so great, that the excessive security is still needed. (It's not always the laptop itself, but what is contained on it.)

Many corporations that have sensitive data tell their employees point-blank: DO NOT SAVE IT TO THE LOCAL DRIVE OF THE LAPTOP. However, it's not foolproof - sometimes the information can end up on the laptop whether employees realize it or not. (Those lousy cache files, for instance..)

Re:No kidding!

[__aagbwg300]

I work at a very large medical school in the Bronx with real professionals and trust everyone who gets a badge. Thus it was strange when a rash of laptop thefts hit the complex that I work in. Each disappearance happened in broad daylight, oftentimes when a researcher had just stepped out to smoke a cigarette, go to the bathroom etc.

You would be amazed at how quickly a person's progressive attitude is changed when their laptop is stolen. The European researchers blamed the Chinese, the Chinese blamed the South Americans and the Americans (myself included) .... blamed other Americans. In either case, morale in the entire place was shot. People were seen bringing their laptops into the bathroom (for non-masturbatory purposes!). No one trusted anyone else.

After almost a hundred thefts security stopped a guy in a Fed-Ex uniform with a bag full of laptops. He got past the checkpoint by claiming that his packages had to be signed in person by the noted party (warning bells? We have a loading dock and people to do that.). When the cops came, he confessed only to stealing the laptops in his bag and claimed that it was his first time. The laptop thefts stopped for a few weeks.... and then started back up!

In the end it turned out to be one of the security guards. No one would have caught him if he hadn't been storing hot laptops IN HIS LOCKER. So the moral of the story is that if someone wants to steal your unattended laptop, they will.

Re:No kidding!

[j-pimp]

He was *irate* that I wouldn't help him: after all, he asked politely. That part doesn't bother me, but it turns out he's from corporate IT for my company. That's just scary.

You've obviously never had someone from IT complain that "you have the completely wrong idea about security" because a password was too long.

Re:No kidding!

[alta]

It's funny you should mention this, I saw this on oddly enough last week.

Lawyer: So you saw the defendant commit the crime?
Officer: No, another officer did.
Lawyer: And do you always trust everything other officers say?
Officer: I trust trust them with my life!
Lawyer:So officer, if you trust them with your life, tell me why you have locks on your lockers.
Officer: You see, our precinct just happens to be in the city courtouse. There are also lawyers in that building.

Re:No kidding!

[kabz]

If it's expensive, and not nailed down, it *will* walk, if someone gain access and feels that they can take it without serious consequences.

Just use a cable-lock like everyone else, and your laptop will be fine, barring specially equipped thieves, who you probably wouldn't want to tangle with anyway.

Re:No kidding!

[__aagbwg300]

Our guy was popping cable locks with a screw driver. Of course, in the Bronx we have best thieves money can buy. :) Your first comment is spot on though.

Re:No kidding!

[griffjon]

Many cable locks are also pretty easy to pick with the old "turn while pulling to feel for changes" method.

Re:No kidding!

[cthulu_mt]

In the end it turned out to be one of the security guards. No one would have caught him if he hadn't been storing hot laptops IN HIS LOCKER. So the moral of the story is that if someone wants to steal your unattended laptop, they will. Having worked as a security guard this sounds right. Most of the folks I worked with were stealing anything not nailed down. I personally just drank beer and slept all shift. Ask anyone in retail and they'll tell you most shrinkage comes from the employees.

Re:No kidding!

[nospam007]

There are laptop clamps available, much better than mere cable locks.
It's secure and still usable.

http://www.loxit.com/claptop.htm?gclid=CNbJ8-KxqJICFQxOMAodM21gLw

Re:No kidding!

[The Dobber]

The first, and most likely suspect is always the security guard.

We had an incident several years back where a female coworker was receiving cryptic messages left on her desk, stuff was being moved, etc, etc. At one point she received a death threat, we had a full blown investigation going on with corporate and the state police. They had the area cordoned off, outside of which sat one of our security dudes.

Guess who had a crush....

Re:No kidding!

[vertinox]

Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time?

I worked for large company with hundreds of employees and theft was always a concern.

Of course, it never was the employees but rather either the people who cleaned the building (and sometimes people pretended to be cleaners) and people who sneaked in off the street. It wasn't the employees because we all knew about the cameras used for other things ;)

Of course their office building was down town in a major city and so many people worked in the building someone could walk in off the street with a package in their hands and tail gate through the elevator and the door (both required a key card with photo id on it) and not to mention walk past security.

Anyways... Laptops were stolen. Purses. And cell phones...

We got monthly emails berating us to question everyone who didn't have a badge and if you lost yours you were required to go to security and have them issue a temporary one.

Now if you work outside the down town of city and there is only one business in the building then its easier to defend against walk ins like this.

Re:No kidding!

[TheMidnight]

Look, son, there's a rare breed of Internet posting: the "cops are criminals" breed. What? They're extremely common in this part of the wild? Well, I guess you learn something new everyday, son.

Re:No kidding!

[calebt3]

Those locks are used after the store is closed for unexpected reasons (robbery, natural disasters...)

Re:No kidding!

[BBandCMKRNL]

My guess is that the submitter works in a high school or a prison. Or a church. My wife works in a church and stuff gets stolen from there periodically.

Re:No kidding!

[cayenne8]

"Well I have worked in offices for years. One time after an office move we came back and a co-workers purse was gone. The whole thing. We were on the 8th floor. Seems someone came in off the street, up the back stairs and got in. Not sure how because the door was locked. Point being that it isn't always co workers who are dishonest. The company got better security on the floor after that....."

Theft hasn't generally been a problem where I've worked either...but, on occasion, we have had some janitorial/maintenance crews come in and take some things. They were usually caught later.

Re:No kidding!

[rubycodez]

our Chicago cops will beat the crap out of you for your insinuations of criminal activity.

Re:No kidding!

[kat_skan]

Seems someone came in off the street, up the back stairs and got in. Not sure how because the door was locked.

You show up carrying a large, unwieldy box and just ask somebody to get the door for you.

Re:No kidding!

[poot_rootbeer]

the moral of the story is that if someone wants to steal your unattended laptop, they will.

The moral is that if someone wants to steal anything -- including a stationary LCD panel or a desktop mini-tower -- they will. It's not like having to unscrew the DVI cable is going to be an effective deterrent.

Re:No kidding!

[Mr Z]

We had a rash of laptop and electronics thefts from locked offices at where I work, too. I suspect it was one bad apple with access to keys, because I haven't heard much about it before or since. That said, they've asked us to lock up our laptops if we leave them overnight anyway.

It's not like this is a terribly insecure site, either. We have constant security patrols, radio badges to get in and out, cameras in all the main hallways, etc. But, you wouldn't look out of place carrying a laptop out of the building either, regardless of whether it's yours or not.

I started out saying "cleaning crew," but that's maybe a bit presumptuous, and could easily be viewed as prejudice. Of course, most of the regular employees make enough (we're engineers) that stealing a laptop and risking a career doing so makes very little sense. I'm not sure how closely the Rent-a-Cops are scrutinized. One hopes they are. Laying default blame in any direction without evidence is could easily be mistaken for racism, sadly. Cleaning crew and cafeteria staff? Almost exclusively Hispanic. The Rent-a-Cops? Almost exclusively African American. The engineering staff? It's the most diverse, but mostly Caucasian, East Indian, Asian.

In your case, you said "They were usually caught," which means you've got evidence. I don't, which is why I can't and won't lay default blame.

--Joe

Re:No kidding!

[Mr Z]

My approach, especially since there's a security officer near the entrance where I work anyway, is to say "I'll have security buzz you in." I guess your worksite doesn't work that way?

Re:No kidding!

[Hoplite3]

I work in a major research university in a different city, and we had a very similar rash of laptop thefts. The perp wandered buildings in a FedEx uniform with an empty FedEx box. When he saw a laptop, he'd put it in the box and walk out of the building. He got caught mid-act, and they recovered some five laptops from the guy. I wonder if there's an organized gang that steals and resells the laptops, or just many people having the same bright idea for a scam.

I must admit I'm impressed with the inventiveness of the crime. FedEx is a good cover. Those guys are often wandering around and are not suspicious.

Re:No kidding!

[cayenne8]

"I started out saying "cleaning crew," but that's maybe a bit presumptuous, and could easily be viewed as prejudice. Of course, most of the regular employees make enough (we're engineers) that stealing a laptop and risking a career doing so makes very little sense. I'm not sure how closely the Rent-a-Cops are scrutinized. One hopes they are. Laying default blame in any direction without evidence is could easily be mistaken for racism, sadly. Cleaning crew and cafeteria staff? Almost exclusively Hispanic. The Rent-a-Cops? Almost exclusively African American. The engineering staff? It's the most diverse, but mostly Caucasian, East Indian, Asian."

[rant]

You know...I'm getting very tired of everyone having to walk on egg shells to avoid the 'racism' card being thrown at them.

At no time, did I, nor many other threads here that said it was often the cleaning service...mention race. Only categories of jobs were mentioned...Rent-a-cops, janitors, etc. Now...if one ethnic group tends to predominate in one of these jobs where you work, and they happen to be stealing stuff, it doesn't make it any less true that it was the cleaning crew.

God...lets face it. Sometimes, black people sell crack. Sometimes hispanic people steal things, some asian drivers are poor drivers, sometimes white people are white trash. These are truths...they happen. Not everyone of a race does these things, but, some do, and I'm getting sick and tired of when someone points out that someone of a certain race has done something wrong, that they are either labeled racist or afraid they'll be thought of as one. Sometimes actions of a person *DO* play into a stereotype...it happens, and if you see it and say it, it does not make you a racist. That is only if you make blanket statements that ALL [insert race here]'s steal things while at work, are you making a racist statement.

Geez, lets all grow some thicker skin, and not be so quick to throw the racist card, and lets not be so scared of having it played, that we're scared to say something that might in some cases, happen to be true.

[/rant]

Re:No kidding!

[Mr Z]

I just think it's somewhat shocking that over 90% of our cleaning and cafeteria crews are Hispanic, and over 90% of our security guards are African American. That in and of itself seems like some sort of unnatural self-selection.

Re:No kidding!

[mtmra70]

In most cases, even yours, security and maintenance have access to everything. In my place of work, they have keys to every single door. Security needs to be able to open it, because, they are security. And maintenance needs to be able to open it because they have to access stuff in emergencies.

Re:No kidding!

[BBandCMKRNL]

My guess is that the submitter works in a high school or a prison. It could be a church. My wife works at a church and womens purses and wallets have been stolen from their offices.

It could be any large corporation. When I worked at DEC, some field service techs were stealing memory from people's PCs and selling it at flea markets. One guy came in on a Monday morning and tried to boot his PC. When he got a hardware error, he opened the case and discovered that all the memory was missing.

Re:No kidding!

[hal9000(jr)]

Many cable locks are also pretty easy to pick with the old "turn while pulling to feel for changes" method.

1. Bring small snips to work
2. Get big gulp
3. cable is alarmed ? dip squak box in big gulp | do nothing
4. snip cable
5. walk away

Takes less than 5 seconds.

Re:No kidding!

[Burn_This_City]

It's always funny to hear people's rebuttal to this scenario "Well I work with professionals. I can trust everyone in my office. Now if you'll excuse me, my colleagues and I are tardy for brunch..." pfft... get real. So what the people in your office don't steal. The people in mine don't either, or at least they don't advertise it. I can leave my things out on the desk too but I wouldn't be surprise if something went missing one day. Think about it, how many contractors walk through your workspace each day? The mailboy, the water guy who refills the coolers, the visitors, people there just to interview and getting a tour of the place, people from other departments looking for the snack machines or copy room, etc. You think they all have halos above their heads? Nobody in my office steals, but a co-worker did have a magical iPhone that grew legs one day...

Re:No kidding!

[Idaho]

In the end it turned out to be one of the security guards. No one would have caught him [..except he did something really stupid]

Actually this is rather strange.

In such a situation I'd expect security guards to be among the prime suspects, along with janitors - simply because they have access/keys to nearly all rooms in your office building out of necessity. Security guards especially can easily come up with just about any excuse as to why they have to walk around wherever they feel like on the premises of your company. There are not many other people who could as easily come up with a plausible excuse when being found at a place where they don't really have any business being.

Re:No kidding!

[Fulcrum of Evil]

I started out saying "cleaning crew," but that's maybe a bit presumptuous, and could easily be viewed as prejudice.

Why's that? It's far easier to steal from someone you don't know and aren't around, and the cleaning crew is contracted out - worst case, they get another job somewhere else.

One hopes they are. Laying default blame in any direction without evidence is could easily be mistaken for racism, sadly. Cleaning crew and cafeteria staff? Almost exclusively Hispanic. The Rent-a-Cops? Almost exclusively African American.

Big deal. There are plenty of reasons for suspecting low paid people hired to clean up after the high paid people without dragging race into this. I'm surprised that all your rentacops are African - around here, we have an old white guy, some kid (also white), and a couple black people. No Africans at all (except for one woman on the cleaning crew - I think she's African).

I don't, which is why I can't and won't lay default blame.

It's not blame, it's an educated guess.

Re:No kidding!

[berbmit]

This is such a USA/1st world-centric view. There's lots of people out there (including me) working in countries where, for whatever reason (poverty, unemployment, etc), opportunistic thievery by walking through buildings and lifting items is very attractive!

Re:No kidding!

[lymond01]

Not self-selected. The opportunities you here about concerning racial minorities are not always followed up by either side. One can still be "kept down" for any reason, and race is a popular checkmark in the category of "any".

Re:No kidding!

[hoppo]

It's nice that you're so culturally sensitive and all, but I have news for you: It's the cleaning crew who was doing the stealing.

I worked on the maintenance staff of a large office building throughout college. One job we had was to install hidden cameras in areas where there were problems reported by tenants, problems being chronic theft. In the nearly 100 instances we did this, all were members of the cleaning crew.

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dunno where you are working but I am definitely not working in a high school or prison. I am working for a software service company that is located on "properly" secured premises (gate keeper/security turnstile for the premises and RFID secured doors to the individual buildings, every building door and turnstile off the premises has a security camera) and my laptop was stolen during the lunch break only a few months after I started working for them. And not only my laptop, a second laptop was stolen from a neighboring office (no cubicles there, only 2-3 ppl offices) was stolen too, conveniently stored in my laptop case.

Of course there "is nothing on the tapes" (they spent half an hour looking at the tapes with an eye witness that had seen someone suspicious) and nothing else was done. Now tell me being paranoid about this is not in order!

Re:No kidding!

[Mr Z]

Actually, it could be the rent-a-cops, or a disgruntled admin assistant. We had one admin assistant get terminated, and after she was gone, there was a lot of hardware that had been under her management that couldn't be accounted for, including a laptop I had ordered and supposedly "arrived," but I had never received. (In that particular case, Receiving wasn't supposed to even deliver it to me, but rather to Workstation Support, so that brings the Receiving Dock folks under suspicion too.)

So, yeah, I don't like to point default blame without evidence.

Re:No kidding!

[Prof.Phreak]

Eh. I was teaching a class of 10 students (CUNY), where students pickup a laptop and then return it at the end of class.

After a few weeks of this, one laptop suddenly disappeared, with some students still in the class. ie: I -know- one of the 6 students took it, but nobody confessed, nor admitted seeing anyone taking it. These are college students in a small group (ie: I know the names of everyone in the class), yet somehow such a thing still happened!

Afterwards, I had sign-out and sign-in sheets for each machine.

I guess the point is that you never know. Some people aren't afraid of getting caught and can appear just as shocked/surprised as anyone that such a thing happened.

Re:No kidding!

[Glonoinha]

No joke. That Colin Powell fellow, his poor son (Michael Powell, was Chairman of the FCC) and especially that poor Obama guy - not only black, but with a Muslim name - what chance do those guys have in life. Michael Jordan and Shaq. Tiger Woods. Oprah - not only black, but a woman too! There is no way black people can succeed in this world, with all the cards stacked against him.

WTF am I talking about? Maybe any person, no matter their origin, color, race, sex, or religion can succeed in this world simply by setting high goals, living in a world of self discipline and motivation, education and the pursuit of excellence. Given what everybody is saying about Generation Y, a kid growing up today just has to set their bar a little bit higher and BAM! they are head and shoulders above their peers, and then they grow more and more successful.

Black teens - want to be an overwhelming success in life, long term? Here's your recipe :
1. Stay in school. Do your homework. Study. Four hours every night. Even Saturday and Sunday. Four full hours. Graduate with good grades, maybe with honors.
2. Join the military right out of high school, do a four year stint. Get the GI Bill. Get discipline, respect, motivation.
3. Take that money, discipline, motivation and self respect down to a state university. Get a degree in something you can use to get a job in once you graduate.
4. Graduate college at age 26. With honors.
5. Get a real job right out of college. Spend less than you make. Invest 10% in long term growth (ie. 401(k), etc.) Do not buy bling or rims for your car.
6. Don't get pregnant / get any strange women pregnant in the process. Unless you marry her, and plan on staying married to her for 20+ years.
7. Don't break any laws. Not even the drug laws. Stay relatively sober, except when the occasion warrants otherwise.
8. Learn about credit. Get / keep a good credit rating. Don't do things that will damage your credit rating.
9. Do good at work, applying your education, discipline, respect, and motivation. Get recognized for excellent work. Get promoted.

Do this and the cycle is broken. You are a success. Maybe not Chairman of the FCC or President of the United States, but still ... easily as successful as anybody reading this post on Slashdot. Try not to beat the living shit out of your kids when they are teenagers and they try to break your momentum, or try to fall back into the original cycle.

Re:No kidding!

[Azar]

I work at neither a high school nor a prison, but at a multi-billion dollar company. My wife and I work in the same building, she on one side and me on the other. At my cubicle I often leave my MP3 player or USB drive on my desk for days at a time, sometimes even over the weekends. If I think about it I'll usually stick them in a drawer of my desk, but even then I rarely lock it. But I work with all salaried professionals like other programmers, system administrators, project managers, and management.

My wife on the other hand works right next to our call center that's mainly staffed with high-school and college age kids who couldn't get a better job other than answering phones. Many of them are honest, but you get enough with low morals that she has to keep her desk locked anytime she's away for an extended period of time. Even stupid crap like boxes of Kleenexes, pens, pencils, notepads, and the occasional personal items disappear off her desk.

There has even been people who have walked into the office off the street and walked off with laptops (yes, security was increased). And a few years ago there was a rash of stolen money out of peoples desks on my side of the office. A few of the programmers put up a hidden camera and caught one of the janitorial staff in the act.

I don't think that office theft is all that uncommon. For me in my current situation, I wouldn't feel the need to lock down my laptop like the original question asked about. But if it was the other side of the building where my wife works, I'd be taking my laptop with me or locking it away.

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Nobody in my office steals, but a co-worker did have a magical iPhone that grew legs one day..."

And that's why you shouldn't jailbreak your iPhone, boys and... wait, this is Slashdot, isn't it?

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since we're using stereotypes, Hispanic people come to this country willing to work hard. Black people are lazy and want a job where they can just sit around.

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

"sometimes white people are white trash"

Or as former Klansman Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) so memorably put it, "There are white niggers".

Re:No kidding!

[ScrewMaster]

Geez, lets all grow some thicker skin, and not be so quick to throw the racist card, and lets not be so scared of having it played, that we're scared to say something that might in some cases, happen to be true.

I agree. Of course, with certain ethnic groups, you'll need to grow bigger balls because they'll come after you when you make generalizations.

You all know who you are. Don't bother denying it.

Re:No kidding!

[PudriK]

You hit the nail on the head: "self-selection." Most people are attracted to working with others of a similar background, even just by the simple expedient of friends helping each other find a job. It's not surprising at all.

Re:No kidding!

[ScrewMaster]

Ask anyone in retail and they'll tell you most shrinkage comes from the employees.

Odd. I thought that came from getting out of the pool.

Yeah, shrinkage, pilferage, theft: it's a big problem for retailers and warehousers. I remember reading that onetime retailer Egghead Software was losing in incredible amount of money and couldn't figure out where it all was going, they were selling plenty on decent margins. So they did an investigation, put in some hidden cameras, etc. Turned out there was a group of people in the company that were forging purchase orders and delivery schedules: they'd just back a semi into a warehouse, load it up ... and drive away!

Customers couldn't steal that much. To be a really successful thief, you have to steal from your employer.

Re:No kidding!

[Meski]

Many cable locks are also pretty easy to pick with the old "turn while pulling to feel for changes" method. A variation on cancer self-examination. :)

Re:No kidding!

[NerveGas]

Get the GI bill? Hah! Only if you're a chump, as that would involve actually WORK (in the military). If you're a member of an underrepresented race, chances are very good that you can get grants, scholarships, and other assistance to pay for much of your college without you having to do any work at all, other than actually STUDY.

Re:No kidding!

[NerveGas]

"Look, son, there's a rare breed of Internet posting: the "cops are criminals" breed. "

I would have agreed with you until two weeks ago. I've never had any interaction with a police officer in the USA where the cop was any worse than rude or anal. But two weeks ago, I got pulled over for speeding when I *knew* that I wasn't. I asked where the policewoman thought she had clocked me, and she told me a location where it was literally impossible for me to speed. I pointed that out, and she said "No, near the top of the hill." I pointed out that she could not see me from where she was parked at the top of the hill. She said "No, it was between that light and the top. Near the middle."

Seeing that I was screwed, I just signed the form and left. Later, I looked at where she had written the location of the violation... it was at the top of the hill, where it would have been impossible for her to even see me. *sigh*.

We'll see how things go disputing the ticket at the courthouse this week. But given how things go in speeding disputes, I very well may just be screwed. All because this lady was too lazy to find *actual* speeders to fill her quota.

Re:No kidding!

[TheMidnight]

Well, depending on the topography of the land, it's possible for a cop to radar you before you see him or her, such as from the crest of the next hill or around a curve. I'm not saying it happened to you, but I've seen land scenarios where the police officer can park and radar people coming between trees, around the curve or over a hill.

Re:No kidding!

[notaspunkymonkey]

This is totally off topic and I expect to be scored as such, however - Glonoinha I like your post, I like it a lot it's well written and makes perfect sense.

Best thing I have read on Slashdot in a while.

Cheers.

Nick

Re:No kidding!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, ironically, my coworkers are not professional, some are even on probation. But, there's no theft problem where I work.

          That said, my solution: Don't bring personal shit to work. Then, when the companies assets get stolen, that's a company problem, not yours. If the company wants you to use a notebook or memory stick, they can buy it. Sounds silly, but it sucks to have your own stuff stolen while working. You let the boss know you weren't comfortable with the security level. Now, certainly, you can take other measures, but you've given notice that you think putting stuff in a cube isn't secure.

Re:No kidding!

[Digi-John]

Yeah, on my site you first have to show your badge as you drive through the entrance gate... if you somehow get through there, you then have to swipe your card to get through the secondary fences. If your card stops working, there's a phone right by all the entrances that will put you through to security. Employees are allowed to "vouch through" somebody they know is authorized to get in (a coworker whose badge is malfunctioning), but letting in somebody you don't know is a risky career move, even though they *shouldn't* be in that area without having shown their site badge to the security guards already.

One word...

[nickj6282]

...condensation. Bad idea. Maybe a gutted mini-fridge would work, but a running laptop in a running mini-fridge is a recipe for disaster.

Re:One word...

[Plazmid]

Easily solved with a desiccants or putting the items to be secured in a separate chamber.

Re:One word...

[murrdpirate]

Larger fridge with dehumidifier inside? Even better: a stand-alone freezer with a dehumidifier that draws water for the ice tray and helps eliminate frost. Seriously, can I site slashdot message boards for IP?

Re:One word...

[Rhondohslade]

Do I HAVE to think of EVERYTHING? You use a Panasonic Toughbook....the militarized, ruggedized laptop that stands up to just about all the abuse you can throw at it. A little condensation won't bother it.

Why are you worried - it's their equipment

[Anonymous Coward]

This is equipment owned by your employer? Why should you care if it goes walkabout... it's your company's responsibility to provide adequate security for their equipment, and if they think it's safe sitting out on your desk in a cubicle why are you spending brain cycles worrying about it.

I didn't bother to count how many words...

[explosivejared]

... Laser based thief destruction system. If there is anything you learn from being an American, and I am proudly one, it is that you can't overspend on defense. You gotta make all those thieving morons out there realize that they are dealing with death here.

Also, to back up the laser grid, I'd go with some more conventional systems, eg an automated machine gun turret and an anti-personnel mine field.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[evilklown]

Or, if you're strapped for cash, build a Bengal tiger trap. If your office is anything like mine, your floors are raised for ventilation. Peel back the carpet and cut yourself a 3-foot wide trench that runs the length of your cube opening. This should give you a nice 1-2 foot deep trench. Then, take about 300 office pens, remove the caps, and glue the pens to the floor underneath with the ball-end pointing up! You just have to remember to jump the trench each time you enter or exit your cube, or you'll end up facing the business end of 300 ballpoint pens.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Anonymous Coward]

You laugh, but this is how we found that our office thief was actually a squirrel that had somehow sneaked into the building. After it fell into the trap we never had a problem with snacks and drinks disappearing again. We had a hell of a time cleaning up the squirrel blood, though.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Plazmid]

Yeah, but those features are only available to Black Mesa employees.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Hal_Porter]

There will be legal problems if you trap a human thief though. Even if you file down the sides of the bear trap and a leave a stash of twinkies nearby so they don't starve over a long weekend. And land mines are right out. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[soundhack]

As a fellow American I must remind you of another imperative---preemptive strikes. I would recommend that the original poster preempt his coworkers and go steal their supplies first. Leave anonymous notes saying you successfully "liberated" the supplies.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's best to attack them first. Hire a bunch 10yr olds to break into the office after everyone's left. They should search for evidence of who's likely to steal your things and steal/break their stuff. They'll be wrong most of the time, but such is the cost of war. It's better to have a few innocent people's stuff broken than to have your things broken. At least you'll be able to sleep easier knowing your stuff is safe.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[StarfishOne]

Doesn't every cube worker know that there's a wide range of special products for 'cube warfare' available? ;)

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Speare]

My daughter got one of these toy safes with a "laser" security system. You have to teach it a passcode, and it won't open without it. But if you disrupt the little beams across its door, it starts an annoying klaxon and light-show that lasts a long 30 seconds. I cringed at her must-be-secure attitude, locking up her little valuables, especially since she's an ONLY CHILD. I tripped it "accidentally" a couple times just so she would feel like it was doing its job.

However, I'm quite happy with how it backfired. Very valuable security lessons! It has taught her that security is inversely proportional to convenience, that the more complicated a mechanism is the more likely it will fail, that honestly accidental infractions can't be prosecuted like infractions with intent, and when a security system fails she can't access her own stuff. It eats batteries like crazy. It acts stupid when the batteries are low, so she has to recode it every week or two. Also, it blinks red at weird intervals all night to remind her that either she can't trust people around her, or she is being unnecessarily paranoid. I think the safe is now without batteries and empty.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Also, to back up the laser grid, I'd go with some more conventional systems, eg an automated machine gun turret and an anti-personnel mine field

My security system is a teleporter. It teleports the thief about 2m to the left. Which happens to be right outside the window of my 15th floor office.

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Abreu]

Yup, because the second ammendment gives you the right to respond with deadly force when someone is trying to steal your employer's equipment...

What?

Re:I didn't bother to count how many words...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think a cellular phone denator and thermite charge in everything stealable would deter thieves once you start melting stuff when its gone for too long, especially the laptops.

GPS

[Forrest Kyle]

If your work environment is really that untrustworthy, then consider installing one of those GPS tracker devices so that if your laptop gets stolen, the police can track it. It could be hidden somewhere, and once you installed it, you'd never have to think about it again.

Also, make sure and password everything and keep backups of your data.

Re:GPS

[mlts]

That is a good suggestion. A lot of laptops (Dell and HP definitely) of recent make have BIOS level hooks for Computrace's LoJack software, so even if the drive is wiped, the machine will still be able to phone home and check if its flagged stolen as soon as its booted.

LoJack also offers a facility for remote deletion of data so if a really sensitive laptop is stolen, it can be securely erased by remote, similar to how one can wipe Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices if lost or stolen.

Where the hell do you work???

[mooingyak]

Every desk that I've had, whether it's been in an office, a cubicle, or just a table in the middle of a large room has been accessible to virtually everyone who works there. And yet, shockingly, nothing has disappeared on me.

The most I've done security-wise is to avoid leaving some of the more likely theft targets out in the open, but I've never worried about actually locking them away.

In the companies that I have worked for, if things disappear off of desks, someone (co-workers, cleaning staff, whatever) is going to be fired for it.

Re:Where the hell do you work???

[ribit]

This just sounds silly. Use password security, encrypt documents, use a cable lock (You can get USB drives with this feature), but anything more sounds like overkill. Don't they have insurance and security rules and policies to cover anything that gets stolen while reasonably secured? i.e. beyond you doing basic security measures, it shouldn't be your problem.

Security

[AndresCP]

Have you had a bad experience with cable locks? In my experience, they're pretty secure, and if people in your office have such sticky fingers that a cable lock is no deterrent, you should quit working in a crack house and get a different job.

However, assuming you don't go cable lock + locked drawer:

The convenience of just sticking stuff in a big metal box is appealing; have you considered building one yourself? It doesn't seem too difficult if you can find access to the tools.

Working in a crack house

[BadAnalogyGuy]

While the pay is pretty shitty and the working conditions are deplorable, the smoke breaks really make the job worthwhile.

Re:Working in a crack house

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, analogies! Where are the analogies?

My workplace is so honest...

[raehl]

Somebody who left the company left a beer in the fridge.

6 years ago.

It's still there.

Either that, or someone who does not normally drink has stashed the beer there in the event they do have to leave the company...

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[mikael]

That's happened at two of the places I have worked ... The first was a company that had a "There shall be no fighting in the main reception during office hours" clause in the employment contract and the other was in a university research lab. In both cases the can of beer had been hidden in the very back of a filing cabinet, below the racks of papers, over three years old, slightly rusted but still airtight. Other items included similarly aged boxes of sugar cubes, blobs of blue tack and pizza discount vouchers.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Marcos Eliziario]

how are the prices going for vintage beer? I really hope at least is not one of those shitty Budweisers you americans dare to drink.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[raehl]

All beers stored in company fridges are from the local (2 miles away) microbrewery.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[ceoyoyo]

With a clause like that you just HAVE to arrange a fight for 5:01.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[grnbrg]

You DO NOT talk about Fight Club!

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[cp.tar]

With a clause like that you just HAVE to arrange a fight for 5:01.

5:01 in the reception area. But you can also move an existing fight to the reception area.

Sounds like a fun place to work at.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that's mine. I have a six pack in my cubicle, and I replace the one from the fridge every time I take it. It means I get to enjoy cool beer and it looks like nobody is drinking the beer in the fridge.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Anonymous Coward]

You age wine, not beer.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[nospam007]

Somebody who left the company left a beer in the fridge.

6 years ago.

It's still there.

Unfortunately he also left a ground beef sandwich.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[morcheeba]

I've also got a drink still in the fridge -- from 7 years ago. The difference is that I left the company 6 years ago.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[fropenn]

What kind of beer?

I wouldn't be surprised if it is "Busch light". I wouldn't drink that stuff during a drought.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[stickystyle]

You can drink on the job? Sweet deal.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[webdragon]

Beer drinking on the job? Where do i sign up?

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[cayenne8]

"Unfortunately he also left a ground beef sandwich."

What the hell is a ground beef sandwich?

You mean a hamburger?

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Mr Z]

Maybe it was a Maid Rite sandwich?

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[cayenne8]

"Maybe it was a Maid Rite sandwich? [maid-rite.com]"

I went to the site...and it mentioned a 'loose meat' sandwich, but, it didn't tell what a loose meat sandwich is??

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Mr Z]

It's kinda like a Sloppy Joe, except without the sauce. It's basically a ground beef sandwich! I think it has some light seasoning in the meat, but not much.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[nospam007]

What the hell is a ground beef sandwich?

You mean a hamburger?
_____
A hamburger is mostly ground beef, but usually it is cooked in some way before eating, ground beef sandwiches are eaten _raw_, usually with onions and lots of pepper, some people alsoprefer pork because of the BSE scare.

Ground beef
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ground beef, beef mince or hamburger meat, is a ground meat product, made of beef finely chopped by a meat grinder. It is called mince or mince(d) meat outside North America, but can then also include pork. Ground beef is used in many recipes such as hamburgers and spaghetti bolognese.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[lawn.ninja]

Still wasn't funny then.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[JustNilt]

Heh; or the place I worked once upon a time where the dress code was so lax the only required item was your nametag/badge. My co-worker and I (the entire IT staff) tried so hard to convince others to adher strictly to the dress code. :-D

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Kent Recal]

6 years ago? Wow!

Everytime I leave a beer in our fridge it's either gone within
two days or magically transformed into a dollar-bill.

Re:My workplace is so honest...

[Digi-John]

Ze Americans, zey drink only ze Budweiser, you did not know zis?
Come on, people, can we lay this to rest? These American beer comments are basically the same as French surrender jokes, German coprophilia, etc, but with less intent for humor and more intent to show how very sophisticated you are because you would never demean yourself by even LOOKING at what is really the cheapest beer of the thousands available here. It's like claiming that all American food is McDonalds; sure, we came up with it, and it's popular, but it sure as hell isn't the only option.

Find people you can trust.

[Mr0bvious]

I think you're looking for a solution to a symptom, not the problem.

Your problem is that you work with people you can't trust. Look for a job elsewhere... I couldn't imagine working with people I couldn't trust..

Re:Find people you can trust.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your problem is that you work with people you can't trust. Look for a job elsewhere... I couldn't imagine working with people I couldn't trust..

So you absolutely trust everyone who has access to your office ever? The new guy who you've known for all of 3 days? The work-experience person? The courier? The AC maintenance guy? All the cleaners, even those you never see because of the hours they work and at least one of whom has a grudge because of the 'terrible business' in the toilet they had to clean up? And also, if you can't trust them and you move to a new job, you can tell instantly before taking the job whether the people mentioned above in the new office are trustworthy without even meeting most of them? And you can also afford to chuck in your current job because there's one guy you don't trust, and immediately walk into an equivalent job at the same salary.
You are obviously some kind of superman.

Me, I'll just stick with what 99% of office workers do; mostly trust the people you know but assume there could be 'someone' about (probably a 'visitor' of some sort) who might pinch stuff and so take reasonable precautions like carrying my wallet around rather than leaving it on the desk (why? how big or heavy is the damn thing anyhow?) and using the company provided laptop cable locks (not perfect but deter casual theft; if you use them the company won't blame you if the laptop's stolen)

Re:Find people you can trust.

[Mr0bvious]

No, but we have a culture where trust is an integral part. I believe that when it is part of your culture and is respected and valued it tends to breed the untrustworthy away.

Perhaps things are different in your world. I can only speak from my own personal experiences and observations.

I have found that if I place trust in someone they are less likely to break that trust. Locking things down and demonstrating that others are not trusted does not foster trust and does not help the problem.

It's a touch of ye ol' 'Negative Reinforcement' vs 'Positive Reinforcement', the negative tends to only work while being enforced where as positive reinforcement encourages a person to want to do the right thing.

Use the company provided computer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are you worried about it being stolen. It should belong to the company. If you are using equipment that belongs to you at work perhaps you should be talking to your boss about buying you company owned equipment.

Laptop Case

[Grym]

If it's just access to the machine that you need, then have you considered the obvious option taking the laptop home with you? A good laptop case with a spare pocket for your USB hard drive sounds like a winner to me.

Now if you're doing all this to access some local network resource (you weren't clear as to why you needed to remote desktop), then you do realize there are better ways to do this, right? There's a reason why servers are in locked boxes with backup power supplies...

-Grym

Doh!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a laptop! Unplug the monitor and bring it home!

Lateral thinking...

[lelitsch]

Maybe you should consider switching jobs to a company that isn't populated by thieves or situated in a crack alley?

Re:Lateral thinking...

[Anonymous Coward]

Heard you got demoted!

Re:Lateral thinking...

[Anonymous Coward]

Our sales and development shops are in the same building. We left the doors unlocked during business hours to allow our clients to get into our building - given the design of the place, it meant you could walk into the dev area if you knew what you were doing. One day, one guy walks in and walks out with a laptop...

Re:Lateral thinking...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets try and be productive here. There are scenarios in which his question would seem pretty plausible.

For example, lets say he works for an Iraqi company in Baghdad; his office just got bombed away leaving a huge gaping hole in the ceiling and he needs to relocate to another room. Lets also presume that the company hired him *because* he is still one of the few who is not only skilled, but also has a computer to contribute to the company. It's not that hard to imagine..

We're geeks, we should be able to come up for solutions for any hypothetical problem, no?

Uhh

[Hadlock]

I left my ipod on my desk for about three weeks, nobody stole it. If everyone else has a laptop at work, why would they want to steal yours? The cleaning crew isn't dumb, they know a stolen laptop = old crew fired, new one hired.
 
This sounds more like someone got demoted and they're taking their frustration out on not trusting others.

so.. why have a laptop?

[gatekeep]

So let me get this right... you're leaving your laptop on your desk powered on every night. Why do you have a laptop?

If you just use a regular tower you can user a large internal drive, or a few larger internal drives, removing the need for the extra drive. Then your problem becomes securing a tower. There are many desks and enclosers for securing towers.

As for a keyboard and mouse, if you're worried about your keyboard and mouse being stolen I'd recommend you find another job.

Re:so.. why have a laptop?

[s74ng3r]

My thoughts as well. If you were provided a laptop, it means that you'll be needing it any time of the day and you'll have to bring it with you whenever you leave the office. If this isn't the case, you should request for a desktop/tower. This justifies the reason for leaving it in the office. Surely you have something like a security guard that checks items/hardware that goes in/out of the office, so somebody stealing a desktop/tower would be too obvious.

Cable locks are only effective when you leave your laptop during the day, like when you go out for lunch/snacks. Nobody would dare cut your cables in broad daylight.

Re:so.. why have a laptop?

[Marcos Eliziario]

Of course, he is not that worried. He is just being a bitch because he lost his private office.

Re:so.. why have a laptop?

[dkf]

So let me get this right... you're leaving your laptop on your desk powered on every night. Why do you have a laptop? If you're doing a business trip every few weeks, it's really good to be able to take your computer with you. (I don't know about you, but I'm really paranoid about computers I don't maintain; you never know what scum have been using it before you.) But there's no need to take the thing with you at all times; remote access technologies work well (and anyway, it's irritating to have to lose the state of your ssh sessions...)

Re:so.. why have a laptop?

[iamhigh]

Why does everyone think if you have a laptop you MUST take it home each night? Maybe the guy travels every other week to China? Still recommend the desktop? No, you are probably back to solving the original question! Get back in line!

Camera

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a camera monitoring your stuff when you are away and recording to another location?

I second the motion

[TheSHAD0W]

Rather than have your company spend several hundred dollars on a lockable box, have them spend several hundred dollars on a desktop machine that you can just leave there. Then if it gets stolen, it's the company's problem.

Re:I second the motion

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonus with the desktop is usually the motherboard, wires, and other important stuff is off to the sides of the case. This means you can drill through the bottom of the case and into your desk. Throw in some locknuts, smooth head bolts, and some fairly solid washers - your desktop isn't going anywhere that the desk itself can't without some bonifide extra effort involved. (Typical thieves are only looking for the quick grab.) Of course whether or not this option is good depends on how your workplace is about furniture modification.

Now if that idea was viable except that somebody is stealing whole desks from your office, then you should really reconsider where you're working.

Why not take it home?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you need to remote desktop into it?

Doesn't that defeat the whole "laptop" purpose? To be portable?
Sounds an awful lot like a super expensive desktop to me.

Physical and logical security

[mlts]

To the OP: How bad is the thievery rate? Is it a place where anybody can enter to possibly steal, or is it a place where you need locks to keep honest people honest?

You can get some decent cable locks that are Bic Pen resistant. I use these:

http://us.kensington.com/html/11208.html
on all my equipment, be it desktop or laptop. Of course, they can be cut, but it would be a dedicated effort to do so.

First, the locking cabinet is an idea, but of course if someone is desperate enough to cut cable locks, they likely will try for the cabinet if its not bolted down. You could go with a motion detecting alarm, or a locking cable that has an alarm that will sound if cut, but co-workers will get really annoyed if the system makes false alarms often.

Kensington's alarmed lock: http://us.kensington.com/html/6311.html

Second, have you considered a dock for your laptop, if one is available? Almost all docks have some way of locking the laptop to the dock either via a lever and a padlock or something using a Kensington lock slot. Then, you can hook all your monitors and items to the dock and just do a simple eject to hit the road with your laptop.

Third, have you considered logical security? If you are worried about data theft as opposed to physical, consider something like TrueCrypt that can encrypt your Windows boot/system drive, and also encrypt data on external drives. If you use keyfiles, after you type in your preboot passphrase, the external drives can automount while still providing security from thieves. For further protection, you can use TrueCrypt on external drives, and use PGP's whole disk encryption with a cryptographic hardware token. Then, you can use cable locks for your devices and if someone does steal one, it will be "merely" a hardware theft rather than hardware and sensitive data.

Last, if you can't find a metal box, have you considered hitting a metal shop with the dimensions of what you want for a cage, and having them weld you up one? I have had this done (and the cage bolted down solidly) when I wanted to make sure some file servers, switch, and a router would not be stolen. Even though I did not know who other than myself had the key to the room the equipment was in, only I had the key to that cage, so I knew that the equipment might be powered off or perhaps vandalized, it wouldn't be stolen without some major effort. A welder can use pinless hinges and tabs so someone attempting to break into the cage by a crowbar wouldn't be successful.

Re:Physical and logical security

[enoz]

We had docks secured by Kensington locks at one of my cubicle farms. These docks are setup in such a way that you can simply push/pull a lever to release the laptop, but once the Kensington is attached the laptop is locked in.

This is fine for protecting against someone walking in off the street and walking out with your laptop however it will not save you from a determined thief. One morning we came to work and discovered a thief had managed to steal several laptops by partially destroying their docks.

Also a dock generally requires that you have a laptop that supports docking. Not all laptops do.

Re:Physical and logical security

[nitroamos]

Sometimes security that attracts attention can work against you, since a "perfect system" is probably too costly.

1) Maybe your coworkers will try to steal your stuff as a practical joke or as a challenge.
2) A real thief might think you're protecting something particularly valuable, so you don't really want to stand out.

Actually, I worry about this too since my office at school is a group office, so the door is usually unlocked. There are occasionally reports of theft, probably the janitors. The vast majority of office related thefts are, I believe, opportunistic, so I just make sure that it's inconvenient to take my stuff. Nothing of mine has been stolen yet.

Re:Physical and logical security

[NexusTw1n]

Of course, they can be cut, but it would be a dedicated effort to do so.

Kensington Locks stop passers by stealing your laptop.

They do not stop thieves. I've seen a demonstration where the t-bar is prised out of the laptop in under 5 seconds with a screwdriver. Yes, the plastic case of the laptop around the lockhole will be damaged, but other than that, the laptop will be fine.

All the advertising blurb about the strength of the cable is nonsense, the weak point on all laptop security cables is the anchor which is just a hole cut in plastic.

They are good for keeping honest people honest, but are useless for protecting your laptop from a thief with a screwdriver.

Re:Physical and logical security

[v1]

All the advertising blurb about the strength of the cable is nonsense, the weak point on all laptop security cables is the anchor which is just a hole cut in plastic.

In every laptop case I have see so far, there is a hardened steel reinforcement inside the case at the location of the lock port. It's not a LOT more, but it's enough that you are going to at least need to shatter a 3/4" hole in the case to get the lock out. It's not merely a matter of busting a little plastic lip.

A lot of the desktop variations have the hole for the lock go into the inner sheet metal of the frame, so you are going to have to deform some metal to get the lock out by force.

And nothing screams "this is stolen property" quite like a seriously busted up lock port. Makes it a bit harder to fence.

There are really three classes of answers being provided to the OP.

1) suggestions for avoiding the risk altogether. ("don't leave the laptop, do you work with thieves", etc)
2) suggestions for theft deterrent (audible alarms, minor physical security)
3) suggestions for theft prevention (cases, serious locks, etc)

From the sounds of it, option 3 is the only one he is interested in, and is receiving the least help with. It's like a vending machine. You don't put a bell on a vending machine and you don't put it on the honor system. You put a massive lock on it and build it with thick steel. It has to be able to stand up to thieves that have all the time in the world, and may even have some tools. Attempting to solve the problem by methods 1 or 2 is a complete waste of time.

I've seen things like this in libraries. It's a steel hooded case, ventilated, and the computer is inside. When you work with the computer, you unlock the latch and the solid steel door swings up and in like an old style garage door. I haven't seen any of these recently, but they offer good physical security, good ventilation, minimal inconvenience, and the computer can continue to operate while secured. It's bulky and looks like crap on your desk - it's not meant for aesthetics, it's meant to secure your stuff, and it's what's required. I'm amazed no one has suggested this to him yet. They're used in computer kiosks also, where you have to have say, a pod of 4 or 6 computers for public access during hours, and secured at night because of minimal nighttime security, like in a mall.

Re:Physical and logical security

[rawyin]

> You can get some decent cable locks that are Bic Pen resistant.

I once had the lock on a cable lock fail. I reached down and ripped it off the computer. Even reinforced laptops are not strong enough to withstand the strength of a person's hand.

Motion activated locks are nice but if you're gentle, you can still rip it right out of the computer.

Re:Physical and logical security

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the slowest guy running from the bear.

Invite a coworker out for lunch

[nickj6282]

Seriously. Make friends at work. They won't steal your stuff then and they'll help make sure that nobody else does either. At my new job, I've made it a point to make new friends and be friendly with everyone else. I feel completely comfortable leaving my iPod out on my desk during my lunch break. In fact, it seems that the person I've made friends with the most in my office is quite the gossip gal. Not my cup of tea per se but if my personal stuff were to go missing at work I don't think it will be hard to track.

Re:Invite a coworker out for lunch

[INeededALogin]

Seriously. Make friends at work. They won't steal your stuff then and they'll help make sure that nobody else does either.

You are assuming that co-workers are the thieves. Office Lurkers are very common. That is, people who tailgate into the company office or(as I have seen) walk in through the fire escapes. If anyone questions these people, they just act like they are lost. When you aren't looking, there go the laptops. Who can blame them, the ultra portable laptops are small, have high desirability and have a high value. Making friends has no effect on these type of people. Better security is not always the answer. People don't like to work in a place full of cameras and they like privacy(which means decent size cubes that lurkers can temporarily hide in(remember Neo).

Re:Invite a coworker out for lunch

[Hal_Porter]

Yeah, but your office friends will keep a look out for lurkers. Plus they can hold the ammo belt on your M60 if it comes to a last stand with the zombie like lurker hoards.

Really, why are we discussing this?

[ribit]

Its so simple... backup your data regularly. Lock the laptop with a cable lock. Whenever it is stolen, claim on insurance. You get new computer! You can't lose. This is what insurance is for... not having to build safe things on your desk, and leaving us to discuss important or interesting things...

Re:Really, why are we discussing this?

[AndresCP]

We discuss important things? I missed that memo.

You don't need a laptop

[Anonymous Coward]

You you are not taking it with you, you do not need a laptop. Your company should buy you a real computer, and you take the laptop with you. If you are worried about theft of data, truecrypt is the tool for you. If you are worried about someone stealing your property that you leave at work, then your company should be providing you with the tools you need to do your job.

I do work for a number of companies and I always berate whomever gives a laptop to a user that never takes it home. We confiscate that laptop back and get them a desktop.

Re:One word..

[Plazmid]

An arm and hammer baking soda container filled with salt should be able to dehumidify the container rather well. Don't forget that the gasket on the fridge provides a fairly good seal against the humid environment.

Docking Station FTW

[DrunkenTerror]

Get 'em to foot the bill for a docking station, and take the laptop and external drive home with you every night. Then you don't have to futz with twiddling video cable screws and plugging up a monitor and keyboard twice a day. Problem solved.

In lieu of a consulting fee for this solution I provided, make a donation to a reputable charity.

Perfect solution

[jollyreaper]

Get crappier stuff nobody will steal, problem solved.

Re:Perfect solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Works great for dating, too.

Re:Perfect solution

[jamesh]

Get crappier stuff nobody will steal, problem solved.

Or an extension to your solution - get crappier stuff, take the logos off it, and stick it on your stuff. Once your HP branded laptop has 'Apple' written all over it nobody will touch it.

...

Ouch ouch the flames are burning me!!!

Re:Perfect solution

[discogravy]

well, he's not worried someone's gonna take his job and with coworkers like that, i'm not surprised.

Re:Perfect solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, that does not work.
Niggers will steal anything.

They don't even know what they are stealing. They steal everything that looks like some "weird electronic gizmo gadget thing".
Nevermind that is 10 years old and crappy.

Sometimes they steal GPS and gets caught by the police...

Re:Perfect solution

[EEBaum]

Or, perhaps, once your Apple laptop has "HP" written all over it??

Re:Perfect solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you have to worry about people stealing other's shit to give to you. If your shit is bad enough, everybody becomes Robin Hood. :D

Suck it up, princess.

[MoneyCityManiac]

Honestly, this sounds like someone who's just bitter about losing their office to a cubicle and causing a stink.

Your laptop and associated paraphernalia are the property of your company. If they happen to find legs then that's an issue for your company to deal with, not you. Hopefully you back up your data, so if your laptop does grow legs it's just a day or two to get up and running with a new lappy.

Besides, your co-workers are in the same position, so if they're not reporting thefts then you probably won't be either. And if there is a problem of theft in your office then perhaps you should be pushing your manager to make your workplace more secure, rather just just your workspace.

Re:Suck it up, princess.

[drbehavior]

I think that the Behavioral Scientist in me kicked into high-gear just as soon as I read your posting. I empathize with your dilemma insofar as its obviously offended your sensibilities in more ways than one. It's difficult to believe that you'd be prepared to accept any pragmatic solution when you offer so many variables in stating the problem. Obviously, your personal self-worth is far too closely related to your working persona and your boss's opinion of you. In addition, for some very deep and personal reasons you also calibrated your value to your employer at a premium and when he made the decision to transition you from a private office to a cubicle you were offended by your interpretation of his message. I can't be quite as blunt as the poster with whose concept I concur, nevertheless, in less colorful language the same point is being made. Succinctly, if you're that deeply offended by your employer's decision to move you from office to cubicle - you really ought to hand in your resignation. I mean, you know as well as I do that you'll never be the same employee doing the same quality of work as you did prior to the edict.

Re:Suck it up, princess.

[jimicus]

Hopefully you back up your data, so if your laptop does grow legs it's just a day or two to get up and running with a new lappy.

Hopefully he's not storing anything important on the local hard disk for any length of time anyway.

Things can go wrong with hard disks other than just somebody stealing them.

High voltage

[www.sorehands.com]

Get an old 24 inch CRT monitor and wire the flyback into an anti-static mat and chair in your cubical. Anyone entering your cubical will get the message that they are not welcome.

Re:High voltage

[Marcos Eliziario]

+5 DIY-EASY-AND-FUN

Re:High voltage

[Shome]

Get an old 24 inch CRT monitor and wire the flyback into an anti-static mat and chair in your cubical.

Just remember to disconnect the wire befor you use the chair in the morning.

Re:High voltage

[Anonymous Coward]

Errrrr. gronk! kill! Must kill! MUST KILL!

cubical == adj. shaped like a cube.

cubicle == n. workplace for many unfortunates.

Why are you moving to a cube?

[itsybitsy]

Ok, why is your company taking away your office and putting you in a cube? I'd find that intolerable! Action must be taken! Get the office back. Get a desktop computer. Heck, get them to give you many more computers and gadgets, but get the office back or head out the door.

Any company that respects it workers won't put them in cubes. Humans at times need privacy during their work day and that means an office that one can close for quite, and closed blinds for that extra special private moment.

Really though, why did they take away your office? Is it a message that it's time to leave? Was the glass ceiling exceeded, temporarily, on your part? What's up with that?

If your work requires you to have many gadgets then make the case that you require an office for corporate security reasons. Gotta keep those trade secrets secret.

The front door looks good. Find a company that will give you the resources that you need to make both of you wealthy. If you're not wealthy within two years at a company, get out.

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[jjohnson]

Goodness, what a charmingly hopeful picture you have of the employment opportunities available to people who post on ./

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[Culture20]

sysadmins often get nicer (albeit sometimes noisier) digs than developers. You just have to be paranoid enough to justify it to management.

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[itsybitsy]

Ok, sarcasm seems to be your method of message. But in what way to you take exception to what I said, exactly?

Look, if you actually want to be a cube boy or girl then by all means don't let me or my point of view stop your existence in a cube.

I for one have no intention of being a cubical slave, nor an employment slave. I work for clients because it makes me money and as a side benefit they get something out of it! I work for myself, to better my life and the lives of those who are important to me. If it happens that my fellow cube mates (nothingness forgive) are actually important to me then I also work for them; however if that's the case then we'd all better be working really hard on ALL of us getting rich beyond belief.

Life is too short to live and work in a cube!

Life is too short to be crammed in working with others in a work environment that doesn't support maximal wealth creation for yourself and anyone else who is important to you. Optionally that can include your co-workers assuming they are mutually supportive.

If all you want is subsistence living and a cube is fine for you then get out of the way of those of us who want more, who want a better life.

What's that saying, "Lead, follow, or stand aside."

Wealth waits for no man or woman. Actually Harv T. Ecker recommends that if you are not making money hand over fist within 12 months of a new venture (or employment or investment or whatever) then get the heck out of it. I moderated 12 months into 24 due to the development curve of the technology industry.

Look, it all depends on what YOUR goals are. Ignore mine, please. Focus on your goals. What do you want to accomplish at a company that has just demoted you from an office to a cube? I'd say they are showing you the door fairly blatantly. Move on. Get wealthy some where else where there are people who will bend over backwards to make you rich as they get rich.

Employment = Corporate Slavery.

Cube = Slave Pit.

I know. I've worked enough jobs and contracts to know what's up.

The corporate interest is rarely your real interest.

For some this is fine. Actually for most this is fine. For a few it isn't. Know thyself and choose what is best for YOU and yours (if you have any yours).

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[itsybitsy]

You've hit the head on the nail. What is _YOUR_$$$_VALUE_TO_MANAGEMENT_ AND THEIR PLANS FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION? The bigger the value they see in you and what you are doing the more resources you'll be given, the more responsibility, the more people, and if you play your cards well (sorry about the poker metaphor) the more cash will land in your bank account.

There are pitfalls of course. Management has lots of tricks to get you to think that you are special to them. That you are important when they are really just getting you to work harder while having no intention of paying you anymore. You must crack this one.

That's why who and what you work on are actually important. If you don't reach your goals within 12 to 18 months prepare to leave; and certainly leave within 24 months if you've not established yourself as vital to their operations as evidenced by big fat payments to your bank account each week or month.

If you value being a geek more then maybe you've found a good spot for yourself and don't mind working for peanuts. Then don't rock the boat. Choose the blue pill as Neo didn't. Play it safe.

The only question I have for you is how much of your life will you play it safe? Go on, take the red pill. Yum. A future of unlimited potential awaits you on the off world colonies, all it takes is a quantum leap on your part. Choose.

[blinking cursor awaits your choice]

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[phreakincool]

Amen brother! Do you have some type of wealth building manual or literature to read? You've really motivated me. Now I just need a plan.

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[itsybitsy]

Sure I have a bridge to sell you, you can turn a good prophet on it anytime!

No, really, you must create your own wealth! Get together with some others you trust, or if you trust no one then do it on your own, and figure out something of value to other human beings. Make it happen.

That's what "management" is attempting to do at many companies but they are not intending to make you wealthy, they are planning on making themselves wealthy!

Take Electronic Arts for example: wow a game company! Who wouldn't want to work on games and get rich? Well, it's unlikely that you'd get rich there now at this stage in the corporate game. Even the early people who were there (a couple of developers who I know) didn't make it super rich. Sure one or two have done very well, but the company made tons more on them then they got.

All of us would have done better as a group had we worked together outside of the greed of EA founders as the rewards would have gone to the creators of the work rather than the corporate hacks and their wives. However, that didn't happen. Live moves on. The red pill comes with bumps and sometimes cliffs. Either learn or don't.

Value is different for different people. Find how to create and deliver value and you'll likely do quite well.

Blue pill? Red pill? Choose.

[life awaits your choice]

Re:Why are you moving to a cube?

[itsybitsy]

Study:

Harv T. Ecker.
Anthony Robbins.
Robert Dilts.
Werner Erhard.
Richard Dawkins.
Bill Gates.
Stephen Jobs.
Christopher Hitchens.
Alfred Korzybski.
Alan Kay.

The Art of The Long View.
Business Models That Work.
How to Make Money.
Learn When You Are Being Tricked.

Graph Networks.
Smalltalk.

Get a Dog

[steelseth]

I would suggest either a Rodweiler or a Doberman.

Is a solution really what he wants

[bombastinator]

About 5 minutes of googling found me vast numbers of things, from laptop locks impervious to the toilet paper tube solution, to locking shelves instead of drawers, to a bar style locking device IIRC I've seen used at CompUSA. Large numbers of people have his issue as evidenced by the large number of solutions available.

My suspicion is that the poster really kinda wants his office back and is making excuses. If this is the case it is natural that no solution is going to work.

Re:Is a solution really what he wants

[reidconti]

Guy just sounds like another whiny "I'm special" nerd.

Re:Is a solution really what he wants

[Anonymous Coward]

Large numbers of people have his issue as evidenced by the large number of solutions available. You're a vendor's dream. Judging by my inbox, large numbers of people have an issue with replica watches.

Re:Is a solution really what he wants

[Shome]

My suspicion is that the poster wants a lively discussion in /.

Going by the responses, he had already achieved what he was looking for.

The entire story of shifting from office to cubicle is bollocks :-)

Got Cubicle Cops?

[tcgroat]

That only works if there's no company policy against having the refrigerator. At a former place of employment, they were verboten for a good reason: the cube farm power network wasn't designed to run kitchen appliances. A refrigerator starting up could trip the circuit breaker and wipe out several workstations worth of work-in-progress.

The environment inside a refrigerator isn't good for electronics. Condensation is not your disk drive's friend. Keeping things cool is fine, but getting them damp is asking for trouble.

Besides that, the same jerk who's been stealing your soda and lunch will find your USB drive, laptop, etc. while grocery shop-lifting.

Re:Got Cubicle Cops?

[Plazmid]

Hide them inside an old pizza box. Few people I know would ever steal week old pizza.

Re:Got Cubicle Cops?

[wellingj]

But statistically any one who would steal a laptop would start with the week old pizza.

Re:Got Cubicle Cops?

[Anonymous Coward]

No I wouldn't.

Re:Got Cubicle Cops?

[PitaBred]

Nope, but cleaners love throwing out old pizza boxes with the trash. They're so zealous about it that it's almost like it's part of their job description.

Where on Earth do you Work?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say you need to seek employment somewhere where your colleagues are honest and some kind of security is in place to keep strangers out of the work areas. Or is this just a way to register a sort of passive annoyance at being re-located from an office to a cube?

Downgraded to a cubicle, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wait until they come after your red stapler. Then you'll show 'em.

change your behavior

[mincognito]

If you don't trust a Kensington cable lock to deter your own colleagues from stealing your computer I suspect you have trust issues.

Not wanting to throw a USB stick into a locked drawer suggests you prefer addressing trivial problems with complicated technical solutions.

Deal with the ventilation

[teh moges]

Aside from the above comments of "don't take personal stuff to work" (if your position requires it, then your work needs to get it for you); deal with the ventilation problem. Get a lockable cupboard with fans on the side, and lock you laptop, USB stuff and anything else you don't need to touch frequently in there and run cables. If your keyboard gets stolen by someone yanking the cord out, who cares? It is $15 worth of equipment and the laptop has a keyboard on it if you can't take the delay before you get a new one.

That said, what about moving your off-line app to a server in the server room? I know it isn't always possible to do this, but it would save a lot of pain. Your laptop was designed for burst use, not to be left on all the time. While you will probably be ok, it just adds strain to the components that they weren't designed to handle. The risk of failure increases the more you leave it on continuously. If you have a VMware server or similar, take 10gb of storage and very little resources, setup a virtual machine. When you aren't using it, the resources it uses will be minimal. When you are, it will be ready for you. You can also put the "green case" to your manager: leaving your laptop on uses power, leaving it on a server that will be running anyway has no impact on energy usage.

In any business environment, you must setup your work area on the basis that your computer won't be available tomorrow (fire, stolen, someone else stole your desk). If it ain't on the network, don't rely on it.*

* The full version is "If it ain't on the network, backed up regually including offsite tapes and part of an overall DRP strategy, don't rely on it"

If someone wants your stuff . . .

[Uther2000]

I try not even to bring in pictures in a picture frame into my office. Unfortunately my experience is "If someone wants your stuff badly enough it will vanish" Even if you can get your employer to asset tag the items (even though they are yours) an keep track of them Most office equipment will not stop a determined techno-clepto

Re:If someone wants your stuff . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed; We've had departments steal computer equipment from other departments not realizing that we track asset tags.

Hi, I just got demoted...

[rueger]

... from a real office into a cube, and now I'm all pissed off 'cause when I was higher up the food chain I crapped on all of the cube dwellers. Now I'm gonna be one of them and frankly it doesn't look good.

If I had half a brain I'd have treated these folks with respect, or at least would now be trying to make a few friends, but frankly I am just so superior that I can't be bothered. I'm sure that they all resent me -- excuse me -- are envious of me -- and that they are just lying in wait to steal my stuff (OK, it's the company's stuff, but hey it's got MY porn on it, so that's like it's mine) and probably spit on my keyboard and give some horrible cube dweller disease.

So I'm taking preemptive action by bitching and moaning about how everyone else here is dishonest. That way maybe they'll be scared to mess with my stuff, cause everybody knows that I'm on to them.

Re:Hi, I just got demoted...

[Anonymous Coward]

and probably spit on my keyboard and give some horrible cube dweller disease.

I take it you've never worked with emotionally-adolescent developers or grad students. We had someone urinate on someone else's desk and personal effects.

Re:Hi, I just got demoted...

[tgd]

Funny? I think you hit the nail right on the head. Should've been modded insightful.

Re:Hi, I just got demoted...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my god, you cracked his secret code!

Really, that was the FIRST thing that crossed my mind when I heard this, except I kinda think that this "posting" is a rehearsal / pseudo-research for a better bitch-to-management later. "Look Mr. Manager, all of these tech people think a cube is unsafe, too. I should go back into my office. Waaaaahhhh!"

My advice: suck it up, big boy.

Re:Hi, I just got demoted...

[Bayoudegradeable]

Cuberty sucks! It is a painful, awkward phase in one's career. No wonder you are so concerned...

Re:Hi, I just got demoted...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he probably works for a company that was bought by IBM. They don't "do offices". Everyone gets to live in the cube farm except for the big wigs. It makes for such a productive work environment!

Cubicle area might be public

[not_listening]

I trust the people in the business I work at. 7 people in all. I leave my laptop on a desk in the office area or on my toolbox during the day. The thing I think about sometimes, is the people that are walking through off the street. The doors to the office are left open to the hallway which is shared by three business. The office can be empty for an hour at lunch or other times. If I'm not using the laptop I just put it in a cabinet. I could understand the posters concerns being appropriate if the cubicle area is semi-public. My suggestion would be a cabinet with a locking top, cut a u-channel for the attaching cables and perforate the back for ventilation. Open the top and guide your cables into the channel and then lock the top.

Safe + USB

[Anonymous Coward]

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/supersafe/sentrysafe-fireproof-waterproof-usb-hdd-housings-save-your-data-not-you-from-armageddon-322405.php

http://www.sentrysafe.com/products/productDetail.aspx?s=274 ... and there are others that are more convenient for home users that are smaller.

Not to be a smartass, but....

[wbren]

I don't trust cable locks. Besides, cable locks won't help me secure my the USB drive and other electronics that might wander off. The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics. First, get a new job. Seriously, outside of a retail break room, I haven't heard of a sketchier work environment. Second, you need to be realistic about your expectations. If you're worried about someone stealing your property while you go on a coffee break, a cable lock attached to a strongbox would be fine for you. If you're worried about your property getting stolen during the 16 hours you are not at your desk, you're going to be disappointed. In that amount of time, anything you could come up with can be broken--heck, most bank vaults could be broken in that time. If you're looking for a deterrent, a cable lock attached to a strongbox is still the way to go. If you leave personal belongings at your desk and don't trust your co-workers or cleaning crew, you're going to get burned. Bring your personal stuff home, and use work equipment for... well, work.

WTF???

[Pig Hogger]

This is clearly none of your concern.

Just move in the cube farm, and if the laptop disappear, well, the company will provide another one. With properly-restored backups, of course. Because the company has a backup policy, right?

Mod me down please

[Hojima]

I know I deserve it when I say: a Chuck Norris cut-out is all you need to deter anyone.

Make ventilation...

[Culture20]

Get one of those $15 USB powered dual-fan laptop trays, mount it on the inside of your drawer so that the long thin output is directed at the (usually) convenient openings in the side of the drawer. Or, just ask to drill some holes where your laptop's exhaust port is. I think you'll be surprised at how cool your laptop stays, especially if the drawer is metal.

At my old job, someone kept his laptop plugged in to its docking station in his lockable overhead compartment, which had ample open space to ventilate and allow cables (KVM,Power,Eth). He unplugged it only for meetings.

LapTop Locker

[kayser_soze]

If security is as big of a problem as you make it sound, or you really need to secure a laptop in a very public-accessible environment (think Hospitals, etc...HIPAA), then something like this could be useful: http://www.datumfiling.com/products/laptop-locker

Disclaimer: I work for the company that designed this company's website, but I thought it seemed like a useful product in this context.

[KS]

Re:LapTop Locker

[Culture20]

doesn't look like it will be a good item for a _running_ laptop. all that foam, and no ventilation...

Re:LapTop Locker

[Anonymous Coward]

And how much is it? Nothing on the web site tells you how much it is or where to buy it. Why do companies even bother making web sites if they don't want to sell their products? Hell, why make products in the first place if they refuse to sell them.

engrave license number

[m0llusk]

Use an engraving tool to scrape your license number, preferably with your name as well, onto anything you are worried about. Drivers license numbers are the only data that can be quickly looked up in almost all states and most countries. If your stuff is found with someone who is not you then it is likely to get them busted and be returned to you. Thieves are also less likely to take items that have been clearly and visibly marked in this way as the engraved number makes items extremely difficult to keep or resell.

Re:engrave license number

[Culture20]

No, thieves can shave engravings, and they can break down electronics into the parts. I had several engraved things stolen from me, despite the obvious engravings making the items look ugly, they had no effect.

Re:engrave license number

[luke923]

Why would you do this? You're just setting yourself up for identity theft along with the physical theft.

Don't leave anything

[secolactico]

Take your laptop with you. Why do you need to access it remotely? If you need access to resources on the company network, ask for access to a company box (preferably locked in the server room) and "remote desktop" to it. If you just need to access the files in the laptop, taking it with you negates the need for remote access. Or maybe ask to be allowed to store/connect your laptop in a secure place when you leave.

If the laptop is your employer's and they insist you leave it, then ask your boss to arrange for proper security measures, not just "offer to buy stuff".

Be prepared to make a habit of locking your drawers whenever you move away from your desk and *don't* leave anything valuable unlocked out of your sight.

As you get to know your cube-mates better you might feel you can relax some of these measures. Be wary, tho. I've seen people facing rude awakenings when they arrive at work and find out that the mp3 player they left the night before grew legs and walked away.

Easy...

[Repton]

Get the laptop case laser-engraved with goatse. Who's gonna steal it then?

Re:Easy...

[gbobeck]

And while we are at it, set the screen saver up so that is shows Two Girls One Cup. It would also help to have tubgril engraved on the mouse as well as having strange stains all over the immediate desk area.

Re:Easy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Better still, get a Macbook Pro and have it laser etched onto the lid. Infact, the big white apple logo will make it look quite tasteful.

Re:Easy...

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, the stains will be enough deterant themseleves.

That's why I got to buy a virtually new $250 mega-adjustable fancy office chair a couple of weeks ago for about $50 - a couple of faint stains on the seat. Steam cleaner'll soon fix them (or at least sterilize them!)

Re:Easy...

[KZigurs]

Think of the e-bay resale value!

I smell a new product here!

[Joseph_Daniel_Zukige]

Lockable mini fridge for the cubicle.

Okay, not so new.

But if it were really intended as a secure place to leave running electronics, it would need a dehumidifier and a stronger lock than your usual lockable fridge.

Sharks with head mounted lasers...

[jerkyjunkmail]

sounds like a viable solution in this case. You can never go wrong with shark security.

Launch missiles at potential thieves

[amirulbahr]

with a Laser Guided Missile Launcher. You might need to do a bit of hacking to get it to figure when to fire and where to aim, but that should be fairly straightforward. I think this is the simplest solution to your problem.

ventilated box

[Anonymous Coward]

"lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics" Dell makes these, although I guess they aren't as much metal as they used to be. I think they call them OptiPlex. The inside of the box has places for mounting things like hard disks and optical drives and a couple fans for ventilation. The back has some ports for connecting up your cables to the stuff inside, plus a ring so you can lock it up with a regular padlock. Oh, and they come with a built-in x86 processor which can even run Linux, it's perfect!

Security at the expense of the others?

[jsse]

I leave my laptop on at night so I can remote-desktop into it, so I'm not really happy about putting it in a drawer (no ventilation), plus I don't like the idea of having to 'unharness' everything every time I want to put it away. I don't trust cable locks. While you're concerning about the physical security of your belongings, you don't give a damn about the infrastructure security of your company. Your network admin would say a lot of you about remote desktop from home to office.

I'd strongly recommend you do the opposite: remote desktop back home with your laptop at work, so that you could shutdown and lock it at night.

What condensation?

[raehl]

Condensation occurs when the temperature of an object is below the dew point. Dew points go up with an increase in humidity. But dew points are also generally lower than the atmospheric temperature, otherwise it'd be raining. You get dew when the air warms up faster than the ground warms up, so the moisture in the air condenses onto the ground.

But...

If the only thing in his fridge is his laptop, there won't be any moisture in there anyway.

Even if he puts lettuce or some other unsealed moisture-providing item into the fridge, the HOTTEST thing in the fridge, and thus the last thing to get any condensation, is going to be the laptop.

And, in general...

You don't see condensation IN a fridge. Go open your fridge now and tell me how many items in there have condensation on them. Maybe none?

It's when you take your items OUT of the fridge that moisture condenses onto them, since they are colder than the air they are in.

So, really, no condensation worries, as long as he doesn't take the laptop out of a cold fridge.

Re:What condensation?

[commodoresloat]

It's when you take your items OUT of the fridge that moisture condenses onto them, since they are colder than the air they are in. So, really, no condensation worries, as long as he doesn't take the laptop out of a cold fridge. Exactly. You can put your laptop in the fridge without any worries at all, as long as you never take it out.

Re:What condensation?

[raehl]

Or you just bring the internal temp of the fridge up to room temp before taking it out.

Re:What condensation?

[Lumpy]

Condensation occurs when the temperature of an object is below the dew point.

It also happens when your coworkers see you put your laptop in the fridge and lock it because you think all your coworkers are thieves.

that causes lots of Condensation towards the owner of said laptop.

Re:What condensation?

[blueg3]

No, condensation occurs when the temperature of air drops below the dew point. The air is what's containing the moisture. (Yes, introducing cold objects to warm air causes condensation on them, too.)

Placing a room-temperature laptop in a refrigerator is a mistake. It will accumulate condensation going in as it cools down, and possibly coming back out as the cold laptop contacts warm air.

Re:What condensation?

[Lodragandraoidh]

solution: Wax fruit/vegetables

You don't have to turn on the fridge, therefore no condensation issues.

Easy solution

[Anonymous Coward]

My boss has offered to buy some equipment to help me secure things, but so far I haven't found anything that fits my requirements.

A door and a ceiling would fit the requirements. Ask for those.

OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are taking responsibility for security, while being stripped of the best resource to achieve that (an office with a locking door!),
you have made a poor choice. You seem to be framing this whole thing into "how can I give my boss his cake so he can have it too?"
I would be asking for, in writing, indemnity from theft or damage resulting from uncontrolled access. In fact, I would want signatures
from not only the supervisor, but also the facilities manager and an HR manager. If it's the company's property let it be their problem
when it disappears. If it's your property, make it an insurance claim for replacement cost. If it's some kind of data that you can get in trouble for failing to secure, you've made extremely unwise choices by allowing yourself into a position of responsibility where you lack the authority to perform.

Cameras

[Koby77]

I feel pretty secure at work because our cubicles sit below security cameras. Despite my feeling that some co-workers are dishonest, nothing has ever disappeared off my desk. It's a good combination of security and convenience knowing that if something disappears, then someone is going to get caught red-handed and will get fired.

But, of course, then the trade off is privacy, something I don't have a problem with in an entirely professional environment. Perhaps you feel differently?

Why he has a laptop.

[srothroc]

I've been noticing that a lot of comments have been asking why the OP has a laptop if he doesn't take it home. Has it actually occurred to anyone that perhaps he has a company-issued laptop that he takes from office-to-office or meeting-to-meeting... at the company?

Due to security problems, I find it quite easy to imagine that employees would have work-issued laptops that they are unable to take home, hence the remote desktopping... though I really hope they have a VPN solution.

However, if that's the case, I'm not sure why you're so worried about physical theft. It's the company's laptop, so you shouldn't really have to worry about it. Their property, their security, their fault.

On the other hand, if, for some reason, you have a personal laptop that you leave at work (charity or crappy company, perhaps?), then I guess you have a whole different can of worms. I'm with a lot of posters when I say that you should probably just go with the cable lock. Anyone that's going to cut a cable is goign to be willing to take a box, in my opinion.

If your security concerns are really, really that bad, you should be telling your boss as well.

Clean desk policy.

[Joseph_Daniel_Zukige]

I'm not sure if it's still the same there, but when I was an intern for IBM, some twenty years ago, it was policy. Secure your work area at night. All floppies and documents, memo pads, etc., in locked drawers when you leave, PCs and terminals shut down and locked. (Accessing a PC from home was not really practical in most cases, and those PC-class boxes that would be meaningful to access from home had locks that weren't part of the power switch. Not that a screwdriver and the knowledge of where to apply the alligator clips couldn't defeat the locks, but that cleaning staff would generally have to be pretty motivated to do things like that, and the really confidential stuff was subject to stricter controls.

Cleaning was contracted out, as I recall, and even if it weren't, it would be hard to hold the cleaning crew to non-disclosure.

Open source solves a lot of that, of course. So does a little dose of reality about where a company's value really lies.

(Speaking of patents, the engineers who know how to implement the patents are much more valuable than the patents to everyone except the lawyers.)

Put it in an old computer case

[KevMar]

If you dont ever take your laptop anyplace, you could take an old computer case from home. Gut the components out and hide the laptop inside it. Then lock that case down.

If you have external usb devices that you never unplug, just place them inside too. I guess this is the poor mans lock box with vent holes. That and if its yellow enough, nobody with think to take it.

Or just get used to the cable locks and put your things away. Change is not the end of the world, you just have to adjust to it. The external usb items would be an issue for anyone in your new area. Talk to them and see what they do.

Something we do in our public labs to lock down things like keyboards/mice/usb cords. Take a washer that is too small for either end of the cord to fit into. Fold the cord in half and insert the fold into the washer. Run a cable lock through the little loop and lock it onto the laptop or computer. You either have to unlock it or cut something. This protects the cords, but if it detaches from the device you are still out of luck.

A solution: webcam. But you have other problems...

[wernst]

I'm going to get to a solution first, but you have other problems.

For security, put up a webcam or two in your new cubicle: both overlooking your workspace. Make sure they are visible and have bright or blinking LEDs, so they'll be really noticed. Put up a warning sign saying that this space is remotely monitored and digitally recored. Even if it really isn't, the warning should be enough to keep the basic rif-raff away. Sometimes deterrence is better than physical security...

Now then. Here's the real problem.

You speak as if this notebook is your personal property. It really shouldn't be. Your company should be supplying you with the equipment you need to do your job, and if the company equipment gets stolen when you're not around, that's the company's fucking problem, not yours.

Secondly, you say this notebook has an external monitor, standalone keyboard and separate mouse. That sure sounds like a desktop computer to me. Get one instead of the notebook, and the chances of your computer walking off are slim to none.

Third, what place are you working in where you fear your stuff will be taken? I've done time in cubicles since 1988, in places ranging from digital sweatshops, to NASA-type work with spaceship software support, to fortune-500 joints. Never once have I ever had anything taken from my desk more serious than a stapler. I don't even lock the drawers or file cabinets.

Maybe it's time to look for a new shop, since they don't supply you properly, kicked you out of your office, and they employ co-workers that you fear will steal your shit.

vintage beer!

[Joseph_Daniel_Zukige]

heh.

Webcam

[Infirmo]

There are tons of webcam apps that record images only when the image changes. If you have a webcam in the bezel of your laptop, you can use it to record everyone who enters your cube, or even looks into it, when you aren't around. Or you can just buy an external webcam. Anyway, just run it whenever you aren't in there, and spool the images to a remote location on the network. First, you can see who is scoping your stuff, and then you can catch them in the act if that actually do run off with it. Hell, barring actual theft, it may just be fun to see what people do in your cube when you aren't around... or it may be chilling and paranoia inducing. Main disadvantage of security culture? A propagation of fear and fear-mongering.

For Mac, check out BTV Pro:
http://www.bensoftware.com/btvpro.html

Similar software exists for Winboxes as well.

Security Construction and Equipment Committee

[Anonymous Coward]

Try the SCEC (Security Construction and Equipment Committee)[http://www.asio.gov.au/Work/Content/EquipmentTesting.aspx].
Of course the actual list is classified RESTRICTED so you cant see it in full, but google works too.
Dont know if there is a US equiv like the Common Criteria

here is solution to the prevention....

[holywarrior21c]

Just don't be the neat-frick-pussy in the office and just keep the guy with Cheetos bag out of your cubicle. Spread some cheetos here and there on the ground so no one wanna step into your cubicle. I can already smell that you are the 'neat freak'. u don't like locks, you don't like drawers. so what? lavitating desk and invisible force shield? dream on!

laptop == portable - it is NOT a desktop machine!!

[rcpitt]

If you "need" a laptop - it should be as secondary to your desktop. A laptop is for travel - working on your lap, not your desktop - and certainly not remotely from home. Take the damned thing home if you need to work on stuff that it contains while there. If the company doesn't authorize you to take it home then you sure as heck should not be able to rdesktop/vnc to it from there either!!!

If you travel enough to need a laptop you should understand that if/when you cross to the US from any other country the US security/INS/customs people have recently been given pretty much carte blanche to seize/browse/copy the contents of your laptop (and your MP3 player and video/still camera, cell phone, etc. - in the same way they can look through your luggage) so you should not have things that are secret or "secure" or personal on it anyway.

"Normal" PCs can be bolted down with various devices to keep them from being removed - and in some places should be.

Laptops - even the ones that masquerade as "real" PCs should not be considered primary holders of data - so either you should not care (because they don't hold data) or you should not be accessing them remotely (access the data directly via VPN or... - not via your laptop sitting on your desktop where it should not be)

If all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like it should be put together with nails - if all you have is a laptop the world looks like it should cater to your inadequacy. You're asking the wrong question.

The question should be "why is my employer forcing me to only use a laptop?"

Why not a server rack? Or a server case even?

[JoeShmoe]

Is it me or does this seems like a rather obvious question? A ventilated box with a key...hmmm...what do I know that fits that description? I know! Every server in every datacenter I've ever visited.

Just get yourself a server rack, one of those rolling ones that can tuck under the desk or even smaller ones that would fit on a desk or end table. Maybe something like XRackPro.

They all have either wire or solid panels options for front/side/back/top. Get wire panels for front and rear, maybe a fixed for the rear and a swinging front with key lock. Fish the right wires through and then, voila, a nice open airy box for your laptop and all its accessories. A simple cable lock attached to the cabinet will keep your monitor from walking away. Of course, you can even cable the server rack itself if you picked a small one (but honestly, even the tiny ones are a back-beaker and if you remove the casters a complete #%@#$% to move on carpet).

Or, you could even buy some OEM server case with bunches of fans built in and drop your laptop in like it's a motherboard. You could line up openings for cables and USB but still have the overall device inside something bulky that can itself be secured.

You are right not to trust cable locks. The alarm ones won't work any better if no one is around. I do think the webcam idea is perhaps the best insurance but only if you can trust yourself not to tell ANYONE or let anyone see the footage. Word like that makes it useless as a security step since it's only secure if no one knows to cover up.

And don't forget there are also plenty of dial-home service. You might try even having the laptop report in periodically and have something alert you if it fails to check in.

-JoeShmoe
.

Make your own

[Anonymous Coward]

In all seriousness, if you're that worried about it go down to your local machine shop and have them make you a lockable box out of stainless steel. They can make one out of just about any material you want, in any size and shape. Besides, you get much stronger barriers to theft than you ever will with any of those cheap 'secrity' cables. Sheet metal work is pretty easy especially if it doesn't involve a lot of fine hole drilling or CNC milling.

Why would I bring my own laptop?

[holygoat]

You try working on Windows all day. I'd far rather bring my own Mac to work.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[vigmeister]

Real simple solution inspired by the parent,GP and GGP:

What is the problem? Your cubicle is unsafe.

What is the solution?
Leave your personal computer at home and remote desktop into your Mac from work (using the office's property and your peripherals). Hopefully, your home is more secure than your cubicle:)

Cheers!

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[LaskoVortex]

pity mac's are incompatible with everything used in the business world

Pity you have no idea what you are talking about. Its also a pity everyone wastes mod points constantly when they could save them for obvious flamebait like yours. You should really provide an example or two--and do your research too before you carelessly throw out misinformation, so you don't continue to appear so ignorant. The same goes for similar digs on linux.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[pecosdave]

I am currently brining my own Linux laptop to work. I'm working on a project that requires quite a bit of photo editing and creativity, and unfortunately our workstations are locked down and we don't have software or storage space available for such projects. So a coworker and I are bringing our own laptops with The Gimp and OpenOffice.org installed (he uses Windows XP). We may both be leaving the shop soon, management is concerned about the cost of The Gimp and other tools that we used to make this project work when it comes to filling in our shoes. You don't know how many times I've had to explain the Open Source version of Free to some of these people. Fortunately a good enough percentage of management understands it enough to keep the other percentage in check.

They're brining new people in now. I noticed one seemed geekier than the rest and he lugs his own laptop around anyways. Yes he knows how to Gimp, I think we've found our replacement.

Oddly enough, I have a MacBook Pro also. I find the less powerful Linux machine easier to run these applications on because the Mac version of Gimp I installed requires extra clicks having to do with switching from Aqua to X11, Sea Shore just doesn't cut it, I need a full blown Gimp.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[crenshawsgc]

I have an idea - get a job

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[tech_guru5182]

Strange, one of the nice things about TCP/IP is it works on almost any platform...
Also, there are programs that are mostly compatible with MS Office (Most commonly used office suite in the business world) available for almost any platform...
Oh, you need to talk to your NT/2000/XP/2003 Server? SMB is fairly well documented, and implemented as well.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Swampash]

I'm working on a project that requires quite a bit of photo editing and creativity, and unfortunately our workstations are locked down and we don't have software or storage space available for such projects.

So your workplace doesn't provide you with the tools you need to do work?

Sheesh, these stories are variations on a theme of Frog Not Wanting To Get Out Of The Boiling Water.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us can function well with whatever tools are provided. We don't need to be coddled and special little divas.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Firehed]

I often do this, but it's incredibly impractical if for no other reason than how slow my home upload connection is compared to the connection at work (let alone direct access to the machine). I only need to check things in OS X once in a while; if it was really critical for me to do my job, I'd bitch at our IT guy until he caved. It would bring me the same amount of shunning from the rest of the company for being "that" guy, but I'd also get twice as much done.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Brandybuck]

Cry me a river! If you think you're inconvenienced now, wait until your Mac gets stolen! I expect your company will take reasonable steps to keep your Mac safe, but if it does get stolen, then it will be your fault and not theirs.

My answer to the original question remains the same. If you do not trust your company to keep your personal property safe, then don't bring your personal property to work. Duh!

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

You should really provide an example or two--and do your research too before you carelessly throw out misinformation

If you can not think of a few examples yourself or if you are COMPLETELY blind to think that there are not incompatibilities on how computers are used and what software you run in most businesses, you need to get a job in the business world.

We us SMS to push software patches to our workstations. I am not talking about just MS security updates, I am talking about updates for everything that runs on the computer, our in house software, our own customizations, and many commercial applications. It does not support MAC. We have a system in place to take a computer out of the box plug it into the network. Twenty minutes later is it is fully loaded, configured, and ready for anyone in the company to sit and be 100% productive without touching nothing but the power cord. This includes printers configured, the users home directory, all software that user needs, access to the network through security permission, blah blah blah.. This software is not compatible with the MAC.

There are software packages that can do similar for the MAC as well but that is NOT the software we have and use. In essense, if you can do the same with the MAC, then why switch? We already have the personal, the training and the system in place. Believe me, I am not sticking up for MS in any way shape or form. I am simply pointing out a fact.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just off the top of my head..

Interwoven
Hummingbird DM system (Document management)
Casemap http://www.casesoft.com/
iPro http://www.iprocorp.com/
Concordance http://law.lexisnexis.com/concordance
LiveNote http://www.livenote.com/

These applications (or similar competing products) are used in every single law firm with more than 40 or so lawyers. A lot of them integrate with each other and with many other custom applications depending on the size of the law firm. An example is Hummingbird integrates directly into Outlook, Citrix, and Windows explorer, Many firms have custom front ends for iPro and Concordance for case management across different firms. A lot of archiving solutions work directly with these apps as well. Third party companies that process and manage case materials for submission to courts use this exact software. Imagine trying to manage, review and maintain search able databases of 3 or 4 GB of data across multiple law firms and have a third party companies process, scan, and package data with some off the wall application that no one supports? It would not work. None support Mac at all or not to the level that is useful, hell, some of them don't even support Vista yet. People like to throw MS office out there and claim, see, you can switch to a different office package or run Office on a MAC but MS Office is such a small part of the whole thing. Most businesses are far more than a bunch of individuals sitting at a desk creating word processing documents and running one or two web based applications.

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

The solution is easy, just bring in last year's model. That white iMac is going nowhere, everyone knows that brushed aluminum is all the rage again/now!

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Swampash]

Anonymous Coward said:

Some of us can function well with whatever tools are provided. We don't need to be coddled and special little divas.

Always a shame to see the truth get modded down to 0...

Re:Why would I bring my own laptop?

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Also, there are programs that are mostly compatible with MS Office

For instance, there's Office.

Newer is not always better

[Aggrav8d]

Case in point, this is a situation where a LARGER form factor would be better. People are less likely to steal something the size of a tower case than a macbook air, just because of the sheer bulk of the thing.

It must be late

[fat_mike]

'cause nobody's asked the real question:

Why are you worried about stuff being stolen instead of why you got moved from an office to a cube?

You completely ignored it in your post. Are they remodeling your office or is denial going on?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Drill + Normal Cabinet = Custom Vented Waste...

[WoTG]

Like others, this seems like an odd topic.

Just use a cable lock... isn't it the company's laptop anyway? What more can you expect?

Failing that, get a normal cabinet, and go at it with a drill. It would be kind of fun, actually. Who cares what it looks like, punch the holes in back.

What???

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't get this. I work for a mineral exploration company with an office in one of the most crime-ridden parts of South America. and nothing has ever gone missing.

We have servers, desktops, laptops, and tablet PC's (many of the Mac variety). Printers, plotters, scanners and digitizing tablets. iPods, iPhones, PDA's. Portable X-Ray Fluorescence machines ($60k each and 3 kg), portable seismic sensors ($100k for the system), and every toy you could ever want made by Leica and Trimble. Plus office furniture, drafting equipment, and enough insider information to buy Monets and Rembrandts for toilet paper. Everything is in an office made of mud bricks, and there are four doors with no locks (when they bought the doorknobs the store only had sufficient quantity in the non-locking kind and it was never changed).

All in, well over three million dollars of equipment that could be carried out, or if one were so inclined, loaded into a truck, then fenced in twenty minutes. Know what's missing? My Pilot G-2 pens and my stash of Tim Horton's coffee from Canada.

A cubicle?

Re:What???

[darthflo]

I am intrigued. Please tell me your address, a phone number of a local company with trucks and drivers for hire and the phone number of whomever I need to call to sell your equipment back to you :)

Using a lamp as a flyswatter

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had experience with this before. If you *need* a laptop, you take it with you. If you're going to "remote-desktop" into it, replace it with a *DESKTOP*. Nothing annoys me more than someone who uses a laptop (portable device) as a desktop--and I say this coming from a small cash poor company where laptops are in demand AND misappropriated.

Frankly, the fact that this makes it into "Ask Slashdot" is either indicative of a slow news day or a slap at people who understand the proper use of equipment.

Easy fix

[dsmatthews]

http://strangemonkeydoll.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/steelcage.jpg

Tuff Shed

[pavon]

If this is the case it is natural that no solution is going to work. Oh, I think there is a solution that will work, he just needs to get a lockable container that is a little bigger. Something that can't be stolen, and will hold all his equipment without inconveineince. Something that will make him feel more at home again. That's right, he needs to get a Tuff Shed. Just plop it right down in the middle of the cubefarm. Sure he won't have any lighting, but he's a programmer dog-gone-it; the glow of his monitor is all the light he needs. And when the boss asks what the hell this monstrosity is doing in his building, he'll just mumble something about a stapler. So they might move him down to the basement. A true hacker is only truly at home when in the basement. See, there is a solution. You just need to think out of the cube - and into the shed. Tuff Shed.

Lock Box

[krakass]

A simple lock box like http://cableorganizer.com/computer-cabinets/security-lock-box.htm should suffice.

Get off the poster's back.

[flattop100]

I work at a Fortune 50 technology company, so I understand what he's saying. I'm in a similar position; our 20-person division has been folded into the 1800-person office plex. In addition to the myriad of strangers sharing our new cube farm, there are cleaners, visitors, "security guards," etc. walking through the whole day long. Most of the equipment (read: laptop) feels personal, even though it is company property.

My suggestion: give the appearance of security. In college, the head of IT called it, "Keeping honest people honest." Realize that you're not in the ideal situation anymore, and that compromises have to be made. Get a Kensington and lock down as much as you can with it. Find a shelf to hide the external drive under the desk. Make it part of your daily routine to secure/unsecure everything when you arrive in the morning and leave at night. (Hopefully you're paid by the hour.)

If it's vital, take it home or back it up on the company server. Cry a quiet tear for the days gone by, then suck it up and moan to your coworkers.

Or don't do anything and see how long it takes for your favorite pen to disappear.

serious no sarcasm answer

[NoGuffCheck]

1) biometric finger print reader
2) cable lock for laptop and external monitor(they really are quite good)
3) pre boot authentication (integrated with finger pricnt reader)
4) full disk encryption - Utimaco Safeguard Easy (integrated with finger pricnt reader)
5) data dot dna (tiny dots with serial numbers that can be stuck/hidden on your equipment)
6) Computrace (software that cannot easily be removed and so when your stolen machine connects to the internet it will send its location to the computrace who will work with the ISP local law enforment to retrieve the stolen machine)
7) SafeEnd End point security, individually controls/records usb, i/o, ethernet ports
8) insurance

i got all this with my thinkpad, not because my co-workers are theives but because my companies insurance premiums are high and i have sensitive customer data on my machine which is required by law to be encrypted.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[cp.tar]

Or, if you have a MacBook, you could look into MultiAlarm, which makes use of MacBook's highly sensitive motion sensors.
It can lock the screen, play a sound file (I picked the extremely annoying high-pitched beep) when it is jiggled ever so slightly (adjustable sensitivity), take a pic of who/whatever's in front of it and ftp it to a server of your choosing and a few other options.

If you turn off the warning sound and set the sensitivity real high, anyone foolish enough to detach anything from your laptop will jiggle it enough to have his picture taken.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Thanshin]

It can lock the screen, play a sound file (I picked the extremely annoying high-pitched beep) when it is jiggled ever so slightly (adjustable sensitivity), take a pic of who/whatever's in front of it and ftp it to a server of your choosing and a few other options. But can it explode like a Dell?

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[creepynut]

sorry - meant to mod this to funny, undoing it.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Foolicious]

i have sensitive customer data on my machine which is required by law to be encrypted. Which law? I know this stuff is included contractually pretty much all the time; however, I didn't know there was an actual law for it.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[alexgieg]

2) cable lock for laptop and external monitor(they really are quite good)

Only for protecting the laptop from someone wishing to steal the whole of it. Months ago I read about a case in which a class in some professional training left their laptops cable-locked, went for lunch, came back after one hour, and their HDDs, RAMs, batteries (and anything else detachable) were all gone.

Extensive theft protection means planning towards screwdrivers too.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Spyder]

Also, everyone should know not to trust office furniture with anything valuable. I can pretty much guarantee that at least one of the drawers/closets/overhead bins of the cube you're in right now can be opened without a key and without leaving a mark. My admittedly anecdotal evidence shows that something can be opened by slipping, derailing, or forcing the clasp in every cube I've ever been in. And even if it isn't, those locks can be picked in less than a minute by anything with an opposable thumb, even using improvised picks.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Mr Z]

HIPPA maybe?

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Kaukomieli]

"1) biometric finger print reader"

In that case I recommend you NOT get a DELL. The software they ship with the fingerprint reader (http://www.wavesys.com/products/ets) is actually designed as a single-sign-on-solution where you authenticate once when you start up the laptop - and never again during the whole day.

Whoever designed this has so _not_ a clue about what security means, that if you put a timeout on the "personal information assistent" it displays a nag-message when it closes. If you do not put in a timeout it just displays a "auto fill in?" button without asking you for your fingerprint.

When I asked them how they plan to improve security lead to no result - couldn't say I was surprised.

And while I am at it: anyone got a tip on where to get an actually working solution for using a fingerprint-reader + tpm-chip in a latitude with winXP/kubuntu?

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[beef curtains]

Yep, HIPPA's the reason my ThinkPad's got full-disk encryption with a 20-char-minimum password (which must also use lowercase, uppercase and special chars).

Booting up every morning is like an alertness check...not having enough caffeine coursing through one's veins results in "Incorrect password, please try again. Failed Attempts = 2".

I work in the insurance industry, by the way.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Mr. Slippery]

a 20-char-minimum password (which must also use lowercase, uppercase and special chars).

Decreasing the potential password space, and making passwords harder to remember so you're more likely to write them down. Brilliant.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Anonymous Coward]

AAAAAGGHGHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!@!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!!

You both need to stay after class and cover the blackboards with "HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act".

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Anonymous Coward]

a 20-char-minimum password (which must also use lowercase, uppercase and special chars).

More likely to write down, yes. Perhaps on a bit of paper right next to the computer, yes.

However, this is mitigated by "memorable" password generators, which also "reduce the search space" because they tend to be Common!Word8 type passwords.

But reducing the search space still makes a search infeasble. There is simply too little a reduction gain by eliminating ordinary words from the password space. You get a much bigger gain in search space size by forcing passwords outside the scope of a straightforward dictionary attack. This is especially true for one way hashes, which can be attacked offline.

That is, eliminating the ~300 000 commonest passwords (ordinary dictionary words, names), and the ~26^8 next most common passwords ([a-z]+) you have forced an attacker into an exhaustive search, which is going to be expensive for the minimum 10*20*26*26^16 possible combinations of a single digit, a single punctuation character, a single upper case letter, and the remaining 16 characters all lower case. We might have to search almost the entire (10+20+26+26)^20 space, if the policy does not forbid using a small number of characters or digits or symbols in more than one position in the password.

An attacker with the resources to brute force scan that kind of keyspace will use much cheaper decryption techniques, whether that involves some sort of over the shoulder spying or the use of a rubber hose.

Having no password policy at all tends to make it very easy to find passwords passively, offline, and at leisure.

Re:serious no sarcasm answer

[Foolicious]

thanks for the info

It's been said a gazillion times...

[Tastecicles]

...but, let me reiterate in case you've missed it: if you fear your personal property going walkies, there are two obvious solutions:

1. Don't bring your personal property to work. I don't, even though I work in a very professional environment; this is no reflection on the people I have working alongside me, it's a reflection on the clients. I have no idea of house policies regarding contractors' equipment hence I don't take the chance that they'll say "Oh, you're missing the tools of your trade? Well, tough shit." I take what I need to get the job done and I do a head count before and after. And NO WAY IN HELL do I take my eyes off of anything with a screen (notebook, PDA, whatever). Heck, the only cash I take a £10 stash for a meal and a bus. Apart from my keys and the clothes on my back, and a wouldn't-want-to-steal-it Nokia 3410.

2. Find another job. It's obvious you're insecure about your work environment, and who could blame you for making that decision? You're obviously not happy which must severely impact on your productivity.

As to notebook security in and of itself, the two things I would do if I really needed to leave one onsite for remote login are: a. remove the battery. These are expensive to replace, and nobody in their right mind would consider buying a hot laptop with no battery, and b. put a supervisor and a user password on the BIOS (both different and nondictionary words), this renders the unit completely useless to anyone who doesn't have your memory and your battery, as obviously the moment they unplug it it will power off. As a postnote, mark the unit in such a way as to make it screamingly identifiable (such as the inside of the bezel in acid etch or the battery bay by the same method) without too much effort.

Re:It's been said a gazillion times...

[jroysdon]

I don't think folks stealing laptops are spending time evaluating how good they are first. They ones with locked BIOS and/or no batteries will just end up in a dumpster. These laptops are probbaly getting sold on eBay for a few hundred.

So? Let them steal it... ON CAMERA!

[JonTurner]

Use a cable-lock to deter a "theft of convenience," but also set up a motion-sensing, tracking webcam and stream the video to a network share. In addition to monitoring the efficiency of the janitorial staff, you'll also learn who keeps stealing all the good chocolates from your candy dish.

Oh, and in the off-hand chance someone takes your laptop, just pull up the video/stills from the network and you'll have all the evidence you need to get the thief fired. Just print out the images, and take a nice little stroll down to HR...

Please stay there!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are on the right track - keep complaining about minor things like this in order to annoy and bother your co-workers and you may get requested to go back into your room.

For God's sake, please don't leave the company. The odds are too high that you may find your way to MY company where I will have to deal with you.

Trusting the people around you

[oddaddresstrap]

Like most of the other postings, I've always trusted the people that I work with, from ice cream scoopers at Baskin-Robbins to microprocessor logic designers. That said, one day I came to work (at a rural high school) and realized that a new monitor was missing from my office which is almost always locked. Did I misplace it? Did a teacher "borrow" it? Did the young man that works for me steal it? Did a student somehow snatch it?

To make a long story short, the monitor, a digital camera and an air compressor from the shop were stolen by a sheriff's deputy (the sheriff's department had an office in the building and so, had keys). He's in jail now, nailed by a security camera we were testing.
It was pretty shocking since I knew several deputies (not this one, though) and would trust them with anything and everything. They were extremely disappointed by this bad actor.

Security? VPN?

[aktzin]

You mentioned a laptop and a cubicle. May I ask if your laptop can connect to your company's Intranet via Virtual Private Networking? My employer (a certain 3-letter acronym in the 2007 Fortune 15 range) assigned me a pretty powerful laptop and expenses to beef it up for my needs, including the cost of a home Internet connection. This includes the ability to run virtual machines for training and education purposes of customers and business partners (Windows and Linux) along with the requisite memory and disk space. Fast, reliable networking can be a luxury. But when it's fast and reliable it may be all you need to get your work done. For a while, anyway...

good enough

[beegle]

Take a hint from your nearest university computer lab. Perfect physical security is impossible. You only need "good enough".

For most environments, Kensington cables and decent laptop software security are good enough. The odds are good that your laptop, your external drive, and maybe even your monitor already have Kensington connectors anyway. You're not fighting a dedicated thief. You're fighting a morally-challenged passerby, and you just need to slow them down enough for a coworker to notice and make a scene. Mitigation might well be easier than prevention: if extra machines are available, then keep private data encrypted (or better yet, off of the machine entirely), and make friends with the IT guy who has access to the spares. If you are dealing with dedicated thieves, the fight should begin elsewhere. Install cameras, restrict access, etc. It's a problem for management. If management won't act, then you need a big lockbox, and you need to move your stuff into it whenever you leave.

Get Cubicle WMDs

[BountyX]

Go to thinkgeek and get some cubicle warfare weapons. They also have a cubicle laser trip detection set =) .

Just get a door for your cubicle.

[phreakincool]

Some of these cubicle manufacturers and some third-party vendors make locking doors for their cubicle offerings.
Here's a quick list:

http://www.executiveinteriors.com/fit.php/

http://www.clonecubicles.com/ofcudo1.html/

http://www.productivitycafe.com/2007/10/buy-a-door-for-.html/

Jebus!

[Chris Tucker]

Have your company IT people put a bigass PC in your cubicle. Maybe bolt it down with big heavy chains.

Sync the laptop to it when necessary.

Oh, it's too much trouble?

Find another job, then.

Or, suck it up, stop whining and be a fsking professional.

Now

[Z00L00K]

is the time to require ample security measures that costs a lot. Locking-wires, alarms etc. When the cost exceeds the cost of having a room you may get a room again.

And actually - the stress level is higher if you work in an open area or in a cubicle than in a room. In a room you are always able to close your door.

Kamikasee's not even a /. regular

[Amigori]

Seriously, look his profile and you'll see 4, yes FOUR, comments over 6 years. I don't post that often, but I do read /. often. 1 Submission for 4 comments? Not a bad ratio.

My On-Topic comments have all been covered by others, Get a Desktop, Webcams, Lockable cabinets, Leave your personal laptop at home, let the company handle it, etc.

Makes me wonder if he just got kicked from one of the other sites... Or that his (personal) laptop is behind a work firewall blocking slashdot... Or that he was an arrogant jerk in the office that's about to get his comeuppance in the cube farm...

I was thinking the same thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box I was thinking the same thing myself for you. About 8 foot by 4 foot with a co-worker named Bubba.

This is exactly the type of trivial nonsense that 10% of my userbase throws at me in an attempt to waste 90% of my time, and more directly, your co-workers time as they are waiting for my help too.

At this point I would be remiss to not ask your manager and head of finance to justify the expense of a laptop that is being left in the office. How many extra widgets did your company have to sell to earn that for you? How much extra RAM could that have bought the workers with the beige boxes who are doing the heavy lifting computer-wise? And how much more of an impact would that have had on the company's ability to compete and innovate versus getting you your "Shiny New Thing"TM that doesn't seem to fit what you are using it for?

Let's take a moment and step back and look at the situation and what you NEED to get your WORK done, and based on what you have said so far, you should consider a desktop. I'm not sure about your company, but at mine we spec the laptops and desktops at roughly the same pricepoint - so the user gets the choice of portability or speed. Pick one.

Unfortunately, I doubt you will find a solution as I can tell you will find myrriad ways to shot down any solution other than returning you to your office. I suspect your management is on the same wavelength and you have been outed as a troublemaker/high maintenance and may have had some play in you moving out of said office.

Thank you - I feel my blood pressure has dropped a few points now. Seriously - get a desktop and get back to work.

$30 webcam

[nick_davison]

Stick a $30 webcam under a pile of junk so it's not hugely obvious. You've already said your machine is networked all night. Leave it taking a shot every half second and uploading it to an external server.

Sure, it'll still get stolen. Assuming your office has even basic security to ensure only known people enter, you'll also have a nice and recognizable picture of the thief on a machine they can't access. The next morning, you walk in, grab the image, have them pulled in front of their manager, demand the return of the laptop, have them fired and press charges.

Honestly, the vast majority of cases where people have been convinced someone's stolen their stuff, everywhere I've worked, have turned out to be their misplacing things. Most likely, the theft rate is nowhere near what you fear it is.

Locking your laptop in a big ol box is an ugly pain in the ass for little gain. Hell, if someone really wants it, a crowbar will get through most of them, bolt cutters will get through most chains. And it does nothing to protect the iPod, digital camera, phone, etc. you left beside it. A simple webcam, backing up externally, does a far better job of protecting everything so long as it's subtly enough hidden so no one has any idea they need to avoid being seen by it.

The biggest problem with physical security measures... If someone's determined, they try forcing it. You may get lucky and not have them manage to get whatever they went for... But it'll likely get trashed in the process. The University of the West of England added those U plates to their PC cases, years back... All that happened was thieves trashed the cases. A few less got stolen but they were pretty much destroyed anyway. Having a picture of the thief with your still 100% intact laptop is way better than their trashing it, trying to get it out of a cage.

Re:$30 webcam

[Sadsfae]

Stick a $30 webcam under a pile of junk so it's not hugely obvious. You've already said your machine is networked all night. Leave it taking a shot every half second and uploading it to an external server. That $30 webcam will yield you 172,800 pictures every 24hours, roughly 24GB of pictures a day (averaging 150kb per picture).

Time to buy a new fileserver too.

Re:$30 webcam

[oDDmON oUT]

The next morning, you walk in, grab the image, have them pulled in front of their manager, demand the return of the laptop, have them fired and press charges.

Nice in theory, too bad it won't necessarily work out that way.

True story:

Where I work (with offices), a female manager noticed when she'd come in in the morning that items on her desk were misplaced, the computer was on when she'd turned it off and did exactly what you suggested, bought a webcam and left it running.

Seems a member of the cleaning crew was accessing both her office and her computer, going to NSFW sites and having "personal moments" in her chair, on a regular basis.

Confronted, his supervisor notified, it looked like the spunk monkey was on his way out on a rail. Then Legal got involved.

The long and short of it, since he was not notified that he was on camera there was fear he'd find a good piranha to file an "invasion of privacy" suit and our outfit didn't want the negative publicity, he was not fired. Additionally, the manager was told she must pull the camera, even though everyone now knew it was there.

He kept his job, she bought hand sanitizer by the gallon, and tried not to think about what might have gone on in her chair in the dark of the night.

True story, swear to god.

Re:$30 webcam

[ArsenneLupin]

That $30 webcam will yield you 172,800 pictures every 24hours, roughly 24GB of pictures a day (averaging 150kb per picture).

Time to buy a new fileserver too.

zoneminder

It only records when there is motion, cutting down on the storage space requirements, and making it easier to "find" the footage which has the "action".

Re:$30 webcam

[xhrit]

you can save bandwidth if you set up your cam to only send pictures when your motion detection software trips an alarm.

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/How+to+implement+an+alarm+system+with+Asterisk+and+a+webcam

the perfect solution

[hazem]

Besides, cable locks won't help me secure my the USB drive and other electronics that might wander off. The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics. If it was big enough, I could stick my laptop into it at night (while leaving it running) and feel confident that it would still be there in the morning. I'd be open to other types of solutions. Surely someone else must have dealt with this problem."

This is a common problem and what you're looking for is called a desktop computer. It's a box that sits under the monitor with all the electronics enclosed inside. It even has fans and vents to keep it all working at a proper temperature. /sarcasm

Seriously, the whole point of a laptop is that it's portable and convenient to carry around, which also makes it easy to steal. The desktop can do all the things you need and will probably be more powerful than your laptop and cost about the same as some kind of powered box for locking your laptop in.

Then you can just leave the laptop locked in your drawer for when you need to work away from the desk.

large work environment?

[Sadsfae]

Do you really work in a place large or insecure enough that you would have to worry about someone walking off with your laptop, or are you just paranoid?

Where I work it is small enough that everyone knows everyone, or at least knows who should be in what area and who shouldn't.

Perhaps I am naive or overly-trusting of my co-workers, but I just simply do not worry about someone walking off with my laptop while I am at work.

Re:large work environment?

[Rick Genter]

Do you ever leave your laptop at the office over night/the weekend? If so, you obviously don't work in a place that uses an outside cleaning service, or you've been lucky.

I work for a company that has 70 people. When we were only about 25 people we had laptops stolen from the office; we figured it was the cleaning crew, but of course there was no way to prove it. Police reports and insurance claims were filed, the laptops were replaced, e-mails went out about locking laptops in desk drawers/file cabinets at night, and a new cleaning service was hired. We haven't had a laptop theft since.

Lockable docking station + superglue

[crafty.munchkin]

Superglue the lockable docking station to the desk. Peripherals should be stashed in a lockable desk drawer, with holes drilled at the back of the drawer and through the desk for the cables to connect them to.

power drill

[operato]

why don't you get your boss to buy you a power drill and drill some holes in some of those drawers for ventilation. if you're really paranoid then you should go for one of them laptop coolers with a fan and put a fan in the drawer too.

camouflage with a ringbinder

[Anonymous Coward]

Cut a hole in a (big enough) ringbinder and put it on top of your laptop. Nobody will spot your laptop this way :)

conceal it

[Anonymous Coward]

Hide it somewhere where only you and your near and dear ones have access to. I suggest every day shove it up your a** before leaving.

Re:conceal it

[Anonymous Coward]

The XO hasn't been released to the West yet. Once that happens, anything is possible...

Re:conceal it

[Anonymous Coward]

Anything is possible, if you are so paranoid about your laptop. You can as well strech a lil' bit more for it.

A simple yet effective security system

[dejaniv]

I would suggest a simple yet effective security system which consists of electronic sensor and flame thrower.

Office to Cube?

[Anonymous Coward]

More importantly, good sir, why are you being moved from an office to a cube?

One possible solution.

[Lunarsight]

One suggestion they often make at my office for laptop users who work in cubicles is to take the laptop home with them.

Of course, this depends on your security at home - you have to ask yourself if your home is more secure than your cubicle, and could the laptop possibly get lost in transit?

Another possibility - you could bury landmines near your cubicle to thwart any potential thieves. (You want the sort of landmine that you can deactivate during the day, though - I think you can purchase them on eBay.)

Re:One possible solution.

[ParaShoot]

Another possibility - you could bury landmines near your cubicle to thwart any potential thieves. How? By digging through concrete with a spade?

Re:One possible solution.

[Lunarsight]

Another possibility - you could bury landmines near your cubicle to thwart any potential thieves. How? By digging through concrete with a spade? ------

Nah, that would just be silly.

I would just covertly hide it under the office carpeting..

Re:One possible solution.

[d3ac0n]

Where I work all employees with laptops are required to use cable locks on their laptops, particularly if they leave them at the office overnight.

The security staff is trained to look for unlocked laptops. If they find a laptop unsecured via cable lock they are trained to TAKE the laptop and put it into the company lockup. The employee is then forced to go sign for it and fill out a security questionnaire.

3 offenses in a year means you have to go to a security class, and any offenses over 3 means you can have your laptop replaced with a desktop, or you can face disciplinary action up to and including loss of job.

Also, all laptops are required to use PGP Enterprise full disk encryption, and NOBODY gets into the building without a security card.

They are pretty serious about security there. Good thing too, they deal with customer data from all over the world.

Re:One possible solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh noes, not the customer data from all over the world. Tell me, what sort of medium-sized or larger company doesn't have customer data from all over the world? I mean, besides the one that's going out of business because smart people refuse to work there after being treated like children rather than adults.

Re:One possible solution.

[hotdiggitydawg]

Another possibility - you could bury landmines near your cubicle to thwart any potential thieves. (You want the sort of landmine that you can deactivate during the day, though - I think you can purchase them on eBay. Alternatively just install a battery from Dell or Sony. Of course, YMMV if you leave it on 24/7...

Re:One possible solution.

[NerveGas]

Well... there's personal data, and there's personal data.

At my main job, the worst-case scenario of data theft would be customers' name, address, and credit card number. On the other hand, I do consulting for an insurance agency who recently had a "smash-and-grab" job. The folks ignored all of the nice 23" monitors and new computers I had just installed, went in the back, and took the old, beaten-up server. Why? Name, address, credit card numbres... and birthdate, relatives' names, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, etc..

You can have a whooooole lot more fun (and cause much more damage) with that sort of information than just a credit-card number.

a security solution

[Anonymous Coward]

1. welcome to the real world... unfortunately not all of us get offices out there. :) Even my managers for the longest time did not have offices, and now they paired them up into 2's and make them share offices. 2. If you are that concerned about security, make sure they have good camera's setup at work. That should catch anyone if they are remotely trying to steal anything. 3. stop being so paranoid... if you work on any level of professionalism, you have nothing to work about unless they have you setup working in a ghetto somewhere... 4. Take your laptop home at night instead of remote desktop. Its more secure to your company for data loss, and its more secure to you caus you don't have to worry about someone thinking of stealing it.

What you really need to worry about ...

[Aceticon]

What you really need to worry about is pen thieves.

Really ... in every place I worked in which was open office or cubicles or had more than one person per office my pens would mysteriously disappear from my desk.

Naturally I had to start engaging in "repossessing operations" and get my pens back from other people's desks. I advice you to get into the same habit: just make sure to repossess only the pens which look the newest.

Translation of OP's question into Accurate English

[jolyonr]

"My boss wants me to move out of my nice office into a cubicle, give me some nice EXPENSIVE technical bullshit reason I can give him to dissuade him."

Vista has the solution...

[symes]

Just put a sticker on your laptop saying something like "This laptop runs MS Vista"... and there you go, no one will pinch it then.

Re:serious sarcasm answer

[Anonymous Coward]

A MacBook - 2000$

MultiAlarm, which plays an extremely annoying high-pitched sound file - 175.95$

Getting your laptop smashed by a sledgehammer after your friendly co-worker accidently moved it - Priceless!

Mod/customize your laptop

[TheLink]

0) backup your stuff regularly. Much of my work is checked in to a svn repository (svn isn't great but hey at least we're using something :) ).

1) If the laptop belongs to you,
1.1) modify your laptop (and similar stuff) so that the fence value goes down. Nowadays there's stuff like laser engraving printers, so pay a decent artist to engrave a custom work you'd like on your laptop (and maybe even airbrush too). They could steal it and then sell the parts, but I think it's a lot more work for them for the amount of money they'd get. If they liked doing extra work so much I don't think they'd be in the business of stealing laptops etc. And maybe you could engrave the memory modules and HDD too- "Stolen from <initials>".

1.2) Buy some insurance on the stuff. You could do 2.1 too, if the insurance company is ok with it - if the artist is really good maybe the insurance company might think the laptop's value is higher than standard ;).

2) If the laptop doesn't belong to you, just do the backup stuff and let your company worry about it - if they haven't worried about it at all, you could suggest stuff (insurance, backups, spares etc), and then it's all up to them.

They have cameras in my workplace, but though they have videos of the person who took somebody's phone I don't think he ever got caught (the police here are crap - they are more interested in chasing the sheep than the wolves. e.g. catching people for speeding vs catching people for theft/robbery, and some of the cops steal stuff too). It wasn't an employee - he sneaked in when somebody opened the door (most people don't think about such stuff - and we run a 24 hour callcentre so lots of employees don't recognize fellow employees ), then walked around and then stole stuff.

That's not honesty...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's laziness. We have a strict 'put your name & date' on anything going into the fridge. Most because of an incident involving some moldly cheese attacking one of employees...

Remote-desktop to a laptop?

[Jim Hall]

At my work, we had a group that would regularly purchase 2 laptops for every developer: one for them to use at home, and one for them to Remote-desktop into. I think the idea was that developers could take their laptops to meetings, but would be able to Remote into it from home so they wouldn't have to replicate tools, etc. When we started purchasing centrally, we stopped that practice. If you have a laptop, it's because you need to be highly mobile, and you should take the laptop with you.

Laptops tend to disappear, no matter how well protected. During the day, not so great a risk (cable lock is sufficient.) At night, it's a greater risk because you rely on Security to keep an eye on it for you. In a cubicle, that's just a matter of time before it goes away. And all the data that was on it - are you sure none of it was sensitive data, i.e. reportable? Do yourself a favor: if you have a laptop, take it home with you. If you don't want to take it home with you, then get a desktop PC.

Why do you have a laptop?

[jj030655]

If you have a laptop and you "remote in to it" Why don't you take it home and log on to the network?

Re:serious sarcasm answer

[cp.tar]

A MacBook - 2000$

MultiAlarm, which plays an extremely annoying high-pitched sound file - 175.95$

Getting your laptop smashed by a sledgehammer after your friendly co-worker accidently moved it - Priceless!

First, it only plays the annoying sound file if you select that option, which is not the interesting one here.

Second, $175.95? I remember downloading it for free. What on Earth are you talking about?

no offense, just obligatory x 2

[catmistake]

No worries, mate! No one is going to steal your virginity. And don't call me 'Shirley'.

drill

[Anonymous Coward]

How to turn an unventilated box into a ventilated one:
Drill holes.
Not enough?
Drill more holes.
Not enough?
Add fan.
Done.
Now you can get back to drilling holes for just for fun.

Sorry, no, bullshit.

[jotaeleemeese]

You have a duty of care for your company's property. In many cases this will be in your contract.

There are multitude of people visiting a building that may try something silly based on opportunity, not necessarily because they do thievery for a living.

Any decent company has policies about how to secure the company stuff and your personal stuff and which liabilities exist for both sides in case something goes missing.

If the company says there is no problem living company stuff in full view, then you have no problems, but in many industries leaving company stuff unattended could be even a sackable offense backed by a comapny policy part of your employment contract.

So your cavalier attitude does not apply everywhere (and I wonder if it applies anywhere at all)...

Re:Sorry, no, bullshit.

[MoneyCityManiac]

I fully agree with everything you've said, but invite you to re-read my post as you seem to be disagreeing with stuff I haven't said. Clearly, if he leaves his laptop in a busy food court at the local grub mall and it gets stolen, then he should absolutely be help responsible.

But office security is another thing. The key question, as you say, is what's the company's policy? So long as he follows that it shouldn't be his concern if his laptop gets stolen from his desk overnight. And since there's undoubtibly a company policy, then asking a question like this on Slashdot is silly and pointless.

I'm just going to take a wild guess here but assuming the workplace is more or less secure, then the company policy probably isn't for everyone to lock laptops up at night in ventilated metal boxes. Perhaps the poster is a security saint, but more than likely he's just upset that he lost his office and is raising a stink.

security equipment

[contrapunctus]

My boss has offered to buy some equipment to help me secure things Maybe he can buy you a door with a lock on it and some walls?

practical solutions

[v1]

I posted a reply to an earlier comment here http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=498264&cid=22855510 but I wanted to add a little more to it to specifically answer your question rather than just respond to the other reply, and to make sure you see this response since the above was not a reply TO you.

You should look for one of these hood enclosures, and place your computer in it, off to the side. Or even under the desk I suppose. Then use an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, assuming you're not concerned with the monitor disappearing too. If that's an issue, bolt the cable to the inside of the hood before it gets to the computer.

This would allow you to use your computer with confidence and no inconvenience, and if you needed to take the laptop with you, you could get at it easily.

There are also lockable security bars you can get that go across the laptop at the hinge, and allow full access to the computer while providing a high grade of prevention from removal, better than a kensington lock etc.

I have my own personal laptop that i use at both of my jobs, and I don't leave it at work. If you need a machine to remote into, you might consider a cheap box you can VNC into from home, something you wouldn't care if it walked away.

Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahh, you must be a long-time office snob. Swallow your pride and realize that cubicle dwellers are in fact not a lesser form of human than office dwellers. If anything as a group they are nicer and more respectful of others' property, because they face the casual theft concern daily. You know what? It doesn't happen. But you can sometimes find one paranoid idiot who feels he has to lock everything up. Don't be that person, because you will be both laughed at and (deservedly) untrusted.

DVR Box, Kensington locks

[kenh]

If you really feel you work in an environment that is not secure, and you insist on remaining with these people, here are a few suggestions:

To lock up a running laptop, you could use what is called a DVR box - it holds a PC in a secure box with adequate ventilation. http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&upc=61751755200&pid=_Froogle>

I'd suggestsimply investing in a large number of Kensington locks, many, many devices have Kensington lock "ports". http://us.kensington.com/html/1434.html>

Look into your employer's insurance...

[klubar]

I suspect that most of the equipment is insured, just make sure that you have good backups. Also are you the only one with a laptop in the organization? What are others doing to protect their equipment? Is the equipment your personal property or the company's. If it's you own, you should probably leave it at home. Also, you can use the "park next to an more expensive car" theory. Just make sure the laptop on your neighbor's cubicle is more valuable.

Why leave the laptop?

[jasontromm]

Why not just take the laptop with you when you leave? Isn't that why people have laptops?

Bitch, bitch, bitch ... or be useful?

[TheGreatOrangePeel]

Because people just want to bitch at the poor guy, I thought I might suggest something that's actually USEFUL.

Put the lappy in a computer case. Many of them (the couple of Thermaltake cases I've used recently have options like this) provide places to put a little pad-lock on. Heck, if memory serves, the Thermaltake Matrix actually has a lock built right onto the side of the case. If you wanted, you could even swap out the case's fans for some USB fans and get some real airflow going. Beyond this, however, I think you're talking about something custom made.

Something that hasn't been pointed out yet that I'd like to bring up is the fact that ANY kind of locked box is really a bit of a joke. Yes, it'll keep out ex-con Janitor Joe from just picking something up off your desk, but it won't keep him from coming in late at night and walking off with the whole box. Let's face it, thieves steal the family safe and crack it open later at their leisure.

My solution back in the days when I was issued a laptop, was to slap the lappy into the docking station locked by the company issued security cable and then run wires through a gap in the filing cabinet for all my personal goodies.

The fundamental answer

[Riquez]

1) Take a shoe box and put a $5 alarm clock on top.
2) Before you leave the office, put your belongings in the box. No lock is needed.
3) Ensure your box has Middle Eastern writing on it.

Umm... yeah...

[greatcelerystalk]

I'm going to have to ask you to move all of your things to the basement...

Re:A solution: webcam. But you have other problems

[nra1871]

Everyone telling this guy to "work in an office where people don't steal stuff" need to wake up. People in general are dirt, and even IF everyone in your office are trustworthy, the people emptying the trash cans, delivering jugs of water, and fixing your copier may not be. I work in an extremely security-conscious office. Two separate badges required to enter, etc. We had two incidents in the past year. One was a janitor who would steal money out of purses if the person's back was turned. The second was an employee, who worked here for a decade, was everyone's friend, and whom I trusted completely. He stole a credit card off someone else's desk. We were all completely blown away. People do dumb/criminal stuff all the time. Lock up anything worthwhile.

Simple stuff for your laptop

[scubamage]

First, get a kensington lock for your laptop. Next, get a copy of lojack for laptops. Numerous laptop manufacturers have bios modules which work with L4L so even if a thief were to steal your laptop and replace the hard drive, it will simply reinstall as soon as there is another OS put on it. Even if your laptop doesn't have the bios module, it still installs to a portion of the hard drive that won't regularly be destroyed short of a low level format.

are you friggin serious???

[Ecobady]

The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics. sounds exactly like a desktop to me, smart guy

It's the cleaning crew

[mnemotronic]

Don't leave anything small & valuable laying around. Turn the laptop off and take it home or lock it up. Same with USB drives. Stuff like mouse, kbd, printers, KVM and hubs/switches/routers are safe. Think "resale dollars / danger points". Big stuff has more danger points because it's harder to sneak out.

[off-topic point] -- How are you connecting from home, i.e. are you using a company machine or your own? Don't use your own personal equipment to connect to the company network. Being a slash-dotter you're probably smart enough to keep a system virus-free, but there's always that rare zero-day exploit that could slip into the company via your machine - points off for you. Or someone else connecting from home who is less careful could introduce malware into the company network. After that is cleaned up, which will cost a lot of time and money, management will want the IT/Security dept to perform a binary colonoscopy on every personal PC ever connected to the network, and for HR to institute a policy stating: "connecting a non-company computer to the company network is grounds for termination". NOTE: A similiar policy is in place where I work.

An issue in academic environments?

[supercrisp]

This is an issue for people at the U where I work. Part-time lecturers and grad teachers are housed in cubicles in a public building with no lock to the floor they are on. These folks have to drag around their laptops all day when they're not in the the cube because of high rates of theft. And they of course are not given computers by the school but must use their own machines. It would be nice if there were some good option for securing their personal items, but there really isn't, barring lockers, which the U is too cheap to install. Maybe a locking closet? I dunno. But it's a real issue in some environments. I hope no corporations are as cheap as this university.

Laptop Security

[FreetoGoodhome]

It's portable! Take it home and work locally! If that doesn't suit you, have the boss get you a desktop machine and forget all the paranoia. Leaving a computer logged on all night is a bigger security risk than I would let my users assume for the company. Get real.

Why don't you trust cables?

[AJH16]

The most common thing I've seen in cases like this are cable locks. Sure they don't seem very secure, but they are a solid deterent since security is more about making it easier to go after someone else than making it impossible to steal. If someone really wants your stuff, you are screwed. But if your stuff is bolted to the floor, its probably easier to make off with the next guy's desktop instead. As for hard drives, your drive might not have it, but I know my external hard drive has a Belkin cable connection. This might not secure your keyboard or mouse, but those can easily go in a drawer and simply being out of view is probably sufficient security even if it doesn't lock for such low value items. If you want flexibile motion and decent security, cables really seem to be the way to go.

Re:serious sarcasm answer

[cyborch]

You probably downloaded iAlertU, which is quite free and has most of the same features.

Don't forget data security...

[itsdapead]

The expense and inconvenience of losing hardware can easily be outstripped by the repercussions of losing the contents of your hard drive/USB key - either because it isn't backed up or because it contains sensitive information.

A colleague recently had a laptop stolen from his office, and although having to replace the laptop was annoying and expensive, the real problem was (a) he didn't have everything backed up and (b) he had a file with all his credit card and bank account numbers in (D'oh! - I'd mock, but only after checking very carefully which of my personal details Firefox had helpfully remembered for me).

So, rather than asking Slashdot about metal boxes, ask about hard drive encryption... and make sure your employer provides you with whatever you need, plus a good backup solution. If your work involves sensitive data make sure you send an ass-covering memo to your boss.

I'm slightly astonished by all the people here who say "so what - if your laptop gets nicked its your employer's responsiblility". Firstly, its a dereliction of personal responsibility (if you delegate all your thinking to your employer, don't complain when your employer tells you what to think!) and secondly it ignores all the extra work and inconvenience that having "your" laptop stolen will cause you! Even if your employer magnanimously accepts ultimate responsibility, who is actually going to be re-creating the lost files, re-setting all the passwords and keys, writing the risk-assessment reports etc? Now, if the OP does his research and puts in a request for $200 worth of chains and security software and some bean counter refuses, that would be different - but that's not currently in evidence. If he is using his own personal equipment for work (implied, but unclear) then I'd hope that his employer would replace it in case of theft, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't take reasonable steps to secure it.

Also, has it occured to all the smart-alecks saying "if you leave it on your desk why have a laptop?" that the OP might want to take the computer away some days (e.g. when he's planning to work at home, going on a business trip) and leave it at work other days (e.g. when he walks/jogs/cycles in, is going shopping straight after work, or just isn't planning to use it until the next workingday)?

Staples

[weazzle]

Check out how Staples secures their display models. If you don't have a Staples near by, look at Wal-Mart.

the solution

[cbc1920]

Two Words:

Rolltop Desk.

Wow.

[neowolf]

Where on Earth do you work that you have to be THAT concerned about your computer in a cubicle farm? Does your company have NO security at all? How do the other workers there lock up their hardware? Are you working in a prison or something?

Take the laptop home with you at night if you are that worried about it, and lock everything else up in a file cabinet or desk drawer. If the company won't let you take the laptop home- then why the hell are you worried about someone else taking it? What's the point of even having a laptop if you can't take it with you? If you back things up to a USB drive- take that with you if you can. At least if it does get ripped off- you will still have your data.

If you have to leave it- just get a cable lock and lock your Windows desktop before you go. If you want higher security, and have access- lock it up in the server room or a wiring closet. You can still keep it powered on and connected to the network there.

It's also always a good idea to password protect your laptop's HDD and BIOS. Sure- there are ways to bypass them, but several layers of security are always better than just one. As another layer- encrypt your NTFS data. Be sure to save the encryption key somewhere (like on a thumb drive at home), or you are screwed if Windows crashes and you have to re-install. You can also use any of a variety of encryption programs, like TrueCrypt.

Cubicle Security For Laptops, Electronics?

[TheMaskedElectron]

You can make a point by installing some sort of door, perhaps one of the expandable gates sold to prevent babies from falling down stairs &c. Put a cowbell on it.

Telecommute.

Cubes are actively detrimental to concentration. A company that moves workers into cubes is saying that those workers aren't worth the money that should be spent to provide them with the tools necessary for their best work -- privacy, quiet, freedom from disturbance, disruption of the thought process.

Cube Farms Considered Harmful.

Re: Cubicle Security For Laptops, Electronics?

[/dev/trash]

I too thought cubes were hell. Then I got a job where there are 6 of us in an office, one being our boss. One dude talks to himself. Another is always coughing up phlegm. I use headphones but they're not working as well as I had hoped.

You think *your office is secure?

[Provocateur]

Our office can beat all o youse hands down. There was this coworker in a cubi and she left her briefcase open, unlocked and upright. For days.

Then days became weeks.

It turned out she quit her job. Walked out, just like that.

Re:A solution: webcam. But you have other problems

[Hillgiant]

Lock up anything worthwhile.

Or, conversely, don't have anything worth stealing. Seriously. Buy a briefcase (or backpack if you cannot stand the stigma) and put anything you own (and think might walk off) in it. Take it all home with you.

Re:Not my problem

[Shadow_139]

Also leaving your Laptop on-site overnight is {or should be} against your IT security Policy that you signed.

At least 1 in 20 has done something criminal...

[littlewink]

in most offices.

And you cannot overestimate the possible malice of fellow employees. They will sabotage your workplace, you or your car. They will leave incriminating traces on your machine for others to find. They will steal your wallet, purse, driver's license, or money, or worse. And you will have no idea why they do these things (e.g., wanted your job, hated your sister, you didn't speak to them one day, etc.).

The problem is that you cannot anticipate what others will do even in an office situation. If there is a way to assert control then you should use it. If you lock up your goods then it becomes obvious when they've been pilfered and you thereby gain the peace of mind that comes from setting a high barrier.

I worked for years in a high-security government department, behind secure entrances. Everybody had background checks (not merely online, but where they also _interview_ your friends, neighbors, former girlfriends and family in depth). Stolen items included purses, computers, motherboards, memory chips and cards, printers. Computers were used to gain illicit access. IP (and other types of) addresses were spoofed/stolen to gain illicit access to data. IDs and passwords were stolen, etc. In short, everything that happened in a high-school classroom happened there. And that's the part that _I_ know about!

Get off his case about trust.

[Anonymous Coward]

Heck I've been in a number of companies that have had stuff stolen, once from me. It was a security guard with 7 years on the job at a huge multinational finance firm. Then there was the cleaning crew taking equipment out at night in the trash bins. And still another guy how attempted to steal a laptop after getting in by catching a door of someone leaving. He was caught by our crack security team (the office manager).

It does happen. Usually it is not the co-workers.

The real question is why is there data on the desktop system at all? And why is there an external drive? All data should be on the secured file servers. If there is need for local data it should be encrypted and purged when not needed.

Hardware can be replaced, the data, work, hours and reputation cannot.

Lockers?

[cartman94501]

Many years ago I was at Macy's in New York and I saw old, brightly-repainted school lockers being sold as "retro" storage furniture. I think you had to buy quite a few at once, but they certainly were well ventilated, and if you drilled a hole in the back you could run cables out the hole for power, etc. They were kind of cool looking, too. Maybe eBay would have something like that? As for the trust issue, everyone with access to your office could be trustworthy except for that one person, and your laptop could disappear. These days most laptops aren't particularly valuable, with the rapid price decreases for the LCD screens bringing prices down across the board, but the data and inconvenience could be worth quite a lot. I don't personally lock up my laptop at night, but I probably should.

OpenOffice environment?

[tepples]

Awhile back, a company I worked for moved locations, and everyone was given a cubicle except senior VPs and the president. It was called an "open office environment". "Open office environment": Did they switch to OOo at the same time?

I don't think security is your problem

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds to me that security over your electronics and peripherals is not the problem, but rather the fact that you have been moved from an office to a cubicle. Don't worry, I'm sure a lot of people in your situation get disgruntled, too. Let me first say that welcome to life, the cubicle environment, where no one but you have a problem with throwing their peripherals into a locked drawer overnight until they return the next morning. Secondly, why don't you just take your laptop home with you at the end of the day? If you require your laptop to be on the LAN, you can always put in a request to give you access to it from home via a VPN for after hours, or, a cablelock would work fine. Again, although you may consider it a hassle, millions of people do it every day. Just pack your things up a few minutes earlier to account for the lost time you will spend unplugging and plugging your electronic devices back in. It's corporate america, where employees come second, so why give them more then they give you....I mean, you got demoted from an office to a cubicle!

Job Security

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are being moved from an office to cubicle, you have more things to worry about than security. How about job security? lol.

Obscurity good. ONLY obscurity bad.

[tepples]

security through obscurity? havent we been over this? Obscurity shouldn't be your only security measure, but each layer of obscurity does add one or more "bits", so to speak, to your existing measures.

Re:serious sarcasm answer

[cp.tar]

No, I downloaded MultiAlarm.app.

I'm quite sure that's its name, as it says so right there in my dock.

I will look into iAlertU, though, as well.

Install a fan in your existing drawer/cabinet

[Lanoitarus]

It seems that a lot of the comments here are focusing on the need to BUILD something NEW, like a cage or whatever. But you said you have a perfectly workable drawer or cabinet of some kind that locks already-- why not just cut two holes in it big enough for a couple good old fashioned case fans, and hook those up to a cheap 12v power supply from radio shack? Theres no way a laptop and an external HDD will generate more heat in there than the fans can handle, particularly in what im assuming is an air conditioned office. Plus, this avoids being REALLY obvious about having a big ol' safe or cage.

Get a new job.

[Tortooga]

Seriously, if you are that concerned about a laptop and periphs, then you obviously don't feel safe at work. Time to get the ol' resume ready to go. I have more crap on my desk than anybody in my office and nobody has ever taken or even MOVED a thing. Well - other than picking up my nerf dart gun and shooting it. But, if you feel the need for a "metal box" to hold you stuff, it's probably time to leave.

Happened to me...

[Maroman]

No kidding. We have shared 2-to-an-office environment in part of the building, and door locking isn't a good option if you want it vacuumed at night. I kept cookies (TJ's JoeJoes) in a cabinet, which I closed, but not locked, at night. Come in one day and a cookie is bitten. No kidding. A moon shaped cookie in the box. Like someone tried it, didn't like it, and returned the remainder. . . I happen to work with environmental monitors, with a camera, door sensors and email alerts, and set one up to trigger when the cabinet was opened. Sure enough, three days later, a cleaning lady opened the cabinet, reached into the cabinet and was caught on the camera. She was let go, but I left the camera set up. A few months later, I caught another one opening and reaching into the same cabinet. I'm sure they weren't going to take high tech stuff, just maybe loose change or small things, but, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who's cabinet was looked into. During the day, I leave my keys, cell, anything there- I trust my coworkers, but not the cleaning staff.

Microsoft.com

[blueZ3]

There's no way Vista was coded by anyone sober

Re:Microsoft.com

[CorSci81]

None of Microsofts products are. Surely you've heard of the Ballmer Peak?

Another approach..

[camelrider]

Maybe the OP should consider a desktop computer to consolidate all his portable electronics at the workplace.

remote access far greater security risk

[Anonymous Coward]

you're leaving the laptop at work, and RDP'ing into it from home? Thats a much bigger security risk than anything of the things you've mentioned. Hopefully you're coming in across a VPN, not just relying on a firewall rule+NAT to let you RDP straight in. Even then, you're coming in from your personal machine...how secure is that? And more importantly from the company's perspective, how secure is their data? As a rule, you generally do not want your employees accessing company data on their personal computers, because its far too easy for your data to become theirs at that point.

Here's a really great idea

[baggins2001]

Turn your freakin laptop off go home and quit worrying about the stuff at work. Ask them what to do about the problem, let them solve it. If it gets stolen the heck with it. It was their laptop, right.
I've seen plenty of laptops chained to desks, I don't see why this wouldn't work for you.
Yes in large and medium sized companies laptops being stolen happens quite a bit. I've been in security environments where a key code and badge were required to enter and laptops still disappeared. Once they required laptops to be locked down thefts pretty much stopped. If security saw a laptop that wasn't locked down they would take it and you would have to go through hoops to get it back, file forms with your boss and all kinds of shit.

Dog

[Oktober Sunset]

Get an Alsation, attach it to the security slot on the laptop.

More of a "move on to easier targets" thing

[blueZ3]

The REAL purpose of "deterrence" in a lot of cases is just to get the thief to move on to easier pickings. If you're on the make for a laptop to fence for a little crack money, do you grab the one with the cable lock in cube A, or the one just sitting there unsecured in cube B. Really, your stuff doesn't have to be "secure"--just more secure than the easiest-to-steal item in the same AO.

I think this applies to the software world, too. OSX and Ubuntu don't have to have "perfect" security, they just have to be more secure than Windows. Sure there are a lot more MS boxes out there, but even if the three had equal shares of the market, I'm guessing the script-kiddie hackable Windows is going to get the lion's share of attacks. It's that hacking Windows is easier, not that hacking OSX or Linux is impossible.

Get another computer

[ardent99]

Get them to buy you another computer, a desktop, and keep it in a locked room. Keep all your confidential information on that computer, and access it via remote desktop from your laptop. Then you can remote desktop into it from your laptop whether you are at home or in your cube. You can leave your monitor, laptop, etc. in your cube if you want and if it gets stolen, it's the company's problem to replace it. This way it's just hardware that only costs a few bucks to replace. The biggest problem with having something stolen is the information that's on it, not the hardware itself, and in this case you'd keep the information on the locked up computer, not on the stuff that might be stolen.

Maybe this is a stupid question

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe this is a stupid question, as I do not live in the US and am unaware of laws regarding this.
But won't a webcam, motion sensing software and the internet solve your problem?

Re:No kidding! When it ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY

[davidsyes]

has to be stolen .... Hire MORE security...

wait... reminds me of "When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be Destroyed Overnight Bumper Strip Magnet.", which I think came from:

"When it ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY has to be there overnight..."

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=1jE&q=When+it+ABSOLUTELY%2C+POSITIVELY+has+to+be+destroyed&btnG=Search

Software to Detect Motion using Hard Drive Sensors

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have an IBM ThinkPad, there is some software out there that uses the Active Protection System for the hard drives as a bit of a car alarm. When someone moves your laptop, an alarm goes off, and it sends a text message to your cell phone.

http://www.musatcha.com/software/LaptopTheftPrevention/

There are also Mac softwares out there for doing the same thing, namely JackSMS and iAlertU.

Re:No kidding! One thing to look out for...

[davidsyes]

Janitors... Not ALL of them, but just some. Here is a story.

A few years ago, when I was in a contract IT position, a co-worker told me how he was detained at a major phone company at which he worked around 1992 or 1993. Giant LCDs were being stolen, and security detained him as a suspect. He rode a MOTORCYCLE to and from work. Still, they suspected him and held him for a while. Eventually, they let him go and left him alone.

Turned out later they had thieves among their cleaning staff. They would take LCDs out with the garbage, then retrieve them later. As for laptops, they would hide them in the ceiling during the day, and recover them later when disposing of trash.

I'd heard of (or seen in writing somewhere) about thieves stealing from a highly-secure, expensive garments store. Thieves there rigged a chute at one of the windows and were jettisoning minks and other valuable clothing that way. They were caught in the day time when a manager or passerby observed unwrapped, new-looking garments landing into a truck beneath the window and chute.

"Where there's a WAY, there's a WILL"... something I constantly heard a US Marine Ssgt say in 1984, in San Diego, at NTC/SSC/BOOST...

It's the Security Guards

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in my college days, I had a friend who was a brilliant intellectual, but also a complete outlaw. He quickly identified the security field as one of the more "lucrative" career choices. He secured employment with a high-tech silicon valley company as a part-time night security officer. After spending a few weeks casing the joint, he started pilfering laptops - one every couple of weeks. When he stepped up to one or two each week, the administration called him into an executive conference room. After explaining the situation to him, THEY GAVE HIM MORE HOURS! He dropped back to pilfering one laptop every few weeks which he found seemed to be the company's "acceptable" loss rate. He worked there for several years. They never caught him.

Take it home

[gujo-odori]

The only really secure solution for your laptop is to take it home.

Not long, my company suffered an after-hours break-in in which internal card-key protected doors were forced open with pry bars, and a number of laptops stolen. At least one of them was on a cable lock. According to the internal email about the incident, the thieves simply tore the cable lock from the computer and took it. Apparently, they either thought it could be fenced even with the cable lock hole broken, or intended it for personal use. Policy on notebook computers - that you should either take them home or lock them in your overhead bin at night - was reiterated in the wake of this incident. Door security was also improved after the horse had left the barn :p

A ventilated metal box would offer more security than a cable lock, however, in the event of an after-hours break-in, anyone who really wants your computer is going to get it out of the box, or take the whole box. An overhead bin is more secure because there's no easy way to tell if there's a laptop inside, unlike with the box you describe. It would be pretty obvious the box contained a laptop, and probably a valuable one; why else go to such lengths to protect it? That could make yours a more attractive target to a thief with time.

Taking it home with you is really the most secure option. In the break-in at my company, my MacBook Pro was not one of the ones stolen because I *always* take it home at night. Being paranoid, uh, I mean "security-conscious" during the day I lock it to my desk with a cable lock, especially since I sit pretty near a stairway door.

Computer Security Cases

[supertechguy]

I have similar issues. In-fact, I Just bought a big security case from these guys: http://www.tryten.com/ You can get them in several different sizes, and they are well ventilated. Overall Iv been happy with it.

Simple Solution

[hoppo]

Why not just take your laptop home with you? Your company sprung for the laptop so you'd have the benefit of portability, so it seems sensible to take advantage of that nifty little feature every day. No longer will you have to remote into your machine -- you instead have it right there with you! (btw, laptops weren't designed to run 24/7, so you'd be doing your machine a favor) And you foil the plans of would-be thieves by taking away their intended target.

I know it's a trifle inconvenient, and you seem to be pretty inconvenience-averse. But instead of designing the Fort Knox of laptop security enclosures, maybe it's time to sack up and lug that extra 5 pounds around with you.

Roll top?

[memorycardfull]

Is a locking roll top desk too much bling for your cubicle-imprisoned lifestyle?

Cash drawer

[klx]

My first thought to the "lockable under-monitor box" part -- how about a modified cash drawer?

I miss those enormous Compaq Armada docking stations from the early aughts. Since laptop theft is all about speed, nobody ever bothered a locked-in laptop, and it would have been ridiculous to try to steal the entire dock.

Why is this your problem?

[Fastolfe]

One of the costs of putting your people in "cubicle space" as opposed to a private office is security. Things will disappear from cubicles. Replacing those things is a cost of doing business, as is establishing good physical security, and the total expense should be a good balance of the two that minimizes overall costs. Unless you're in charge of making those decisions, this shouldn't be your problem. Confidential data shouldn't be kept unencrypted on something that's inherently portable, so if someone walks off with your goods, the only thing you should need to do is request a replacement.

Remote Desktop: UR DOING IT WRONG

[Anonymous Coward]

Why remote into your company computer from home? That's just backwards. You should use SSH/VNC to remote into your home computer from work. Then you have access to your personal stuff at work without any personal stuff residing on your work computer or passing unencrypted through your IT department. If you're actually trying to work on stuff from home (they've got you by the balls don't they?) then use said USB drive to transfer whatever files you need back and forth (or send them over your SSH connection before you leave the office). I recommend Unison or perhaps GIT distributed version control to keep whatever project you're working on synchronized. You can even use edna to stream your home music collection to you (again, tunnel through SSH for secret listening). Worked great for me the last time I had a shitty office job.

3 words .....

[Anonymous Coward]

Sharks ....
Fricking ..
Lasers

Cubicle security?

[ScrewMaster]

Well, here's how one well-known character would have handled the question:

"Ah-ah, I know what you're thinking. Did he fire 6 shots or only 5. Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I've kind of lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum - the most powerful hand gun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky. Well, do ya punk?"

Or you could be like Saudi Arabia

[Anonymous Coward]

Chop off their:

hands for stealing
legs for running away from a crime scene
penis for "making romance inside of" someone forcibly

High-5!

Can I booby-trap my stuff with a nuke?

[huded]

Bet you if he got his ass nuked, he'd never steal from anyone ever again.

WTF?

[vrmlguy]

I use a laptop with a second LCD monitor. There's also an external keyboard and mouse and a USB hard drive. I leave my laptop on at night so I can remote-desktop into it, so I'm not really happy about putting it in a drawer (no ventilation), plus I don't like the idea of having to 'unharness' everything every time I want to put it away. Two monitors, keyboard and mouse, an extra drive and you don't like to unharness it. Why do you even have a laptop? You need to get an honest-to-gawd beige box.

I don't trust cable locks. Besides, cable locks won't help me secure my the USB drive and other electronics that might wander off. I don't know why you don't trust cable locks. Have you tried to steal something that's attached to one? You'll need a big pair of bolt cutters or thermite or someting equally obvious to defeat it. OTOH, in my cubicle I have a USB hub in a locked drawer, with a cable that's permenently plugged into my docking station. Anything too small for a cable lock goes into the drawer.

Just make a sentry gun

[JaBob]

Copy what the guys at http://www.thesentrygun.com/ did, but use some capsicum balls instead.

Lojack Jack

[Anonymous Coward]

Lojack for laptops and take the external drive home with you !!!

that was "

[Anonymous Coward]

It takes a lot for a true laugh-out-loud moment, but that did it! Well done!!

Why you don't want to take your laptop home

[cheros]

I'm aware I'm kicking a few shins here by suggesting that leaving your laptop at work is a good idea, but hear (umm, read) me out.

One of the wonderful things most companies "forget" when they impose a laptop on you is insurance. In most countries, the moment the device leaves the office it is YOUR responsibility, and YOUR cost of replacement. Most companies don't even bother insuring the kit as it's generally cheaper just to buy a new one. Hell, I once discovered the company I worked for didn't even have inland health insurance covered, only abroad (that changed rather rapidly after I aired that discovery).

If you leave the laptop at work it remains a corporate responsibility - hardware as well as data.

Now, even though you plan to leave your laptop at work it would be very much recommended that you check out the insurance state of your laptop in case you need to travel with it. Is it insured against damage? Loss? Who pays any excess? What's your personal exposure? That sort of thing.

Good luck :-).

Buy a pitbull !

[yvesdandoy]

and teach it to guard your cubicle when you go away for any reason.

Simple and effective in ant situation.

OT: SSH Sessions

[ibennetch]

(and anyway, it's irritating to have to lose the state of your ssh sessions...)

One word: screen!

It lets you reconnect to your ssh sessions and pick up where you left of. My life's gotten a lot easier since I discovered it; perhaps it will help you as well.

Why would you work with people you can't trust

[HackerAce]

If you can't trust your co-workers you might consider finding an organization that only hires trustworthy people ;)

We had some issues in our office...

[NerveGas]

Entirely with the ever-changing immigrant cleaning staff. Things were broken, stolen, left out, etc..

I got sick of things happening in my cubicle, so I bought a $10 webcam, plugged it into a machine with motion installed, and stuck it on the wall. The LED was bright enough that it was obvious.

Guess what? Shenanigans *instantly* stopped in my cubicle. I haven't had another incident in the 4 or so years since I did that... but the same cannot be said for the rest of the office.

secure here

[r00t]

The cleaning crew is escorted by the watchman. The watchman has had a federal background check which included in-person interviews with friends and neighbors going back at least 7 years, probably 10 or more.