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Ask Slashdot: How To Secure My Life-In-A-Briefcase?

Posted by timothy on from the nix-the-self-destruct-button dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I used to travel with a book and some clothes in a backpack, and now my entire life fits into my briefcase. I have a laptop, a tablet, and a cell phone with access to all of my documents through Dropbox, and all the books I own are on my kindle. Aside from having about four grand in electronics, the bag has everything of value that I own. If that bag is stolen while I'm traveling, it will be more trouble than if my apartment burns down (while I'm not in it). What can I do to secure my life-in-a-briefcase?"

6 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Don't do this! by black6host · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whatever you do don't handcuff your briefcase to your hand. At least not if you value your hand :)

    1. Re:Don't do this! by JimDarkmagic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Perhaps the handcuff is extreme, but don't leave it or its contents unattended. Use one hand at the urinal (if applicable), saving the other to hold the briefcase. Use stalls with walls on two or more adjacent sides, keep briefcase on side of toilet with wall. Don't leave it on the convenient little shelf by the door in the bathroom (think I've seen a lot of dumb stuff in the bathroom?) Don't leave the stuff on the table as you walk across a huge room get more food/coffee.

      Also, insurance for hardware, encryption for data. IOS has full disk encryption and Android might; truecrypt is cheap and easy to use and each major OS has its own native encryption solution.

    2. Re:Don't do this! by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 5, Funny

      Duh. You hire three ninjas and give each of them a briefcase. Only one is the real briefcase. The others are full of ninja-style weapons.

    3. Re:Don't do this! by drkim · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don't put your bag on the belt until the previous person has cleared the detector.

      There are actually teams of two that work this way:

      Bad#1 Walks through detector
      You put your stuff on the belt
      Bad#2 Gets delayed at the detector (Ooops! I forgot those keys)
      Bad#1 Picks up your stuff
      Bad#2 is visually distracting you, goes though the detector again, gets delayed, or finally clears
      Your stuff is long gone, as is Bad#1

  2. Re:helpful suggestion by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Four thousand dollars, you say?

    Remind me again, where do you live and what time do you leave each morning?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  3. Insurance, Backups, Encryption by lowy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Get a rider on your home insurance policy that covers replacement of the hardware.

    Automate regular backups to the Internet to protect your software.

    Encrypt your data to protect your passwords, identity and privacy.

    Am I missing anything?