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Ask Slashdot: How Do You Prepare For The Theft Of Your PC?
A security-conscious Slashdot reader has theft insurance -- but worries whether it covers PC theft. And besides the hassles of recreating every customization after restoring from backups, there's also the issue of keeping personal data private.
I currently keep important information on a hidden, encrypted partition so an ordinary thief won't get much off of it, but that is about the extent of my preparation... What would you do? Some sort of beacon to let you know where your stuff is? Remote wipe? Online backup?
There's a couple of issues here -- including privacy, data recovery, deterrence, compensation -- each leading to different ways to answer the question: what can you actually do to prepare for the possibility? So use the comments to share your own experiences. How have you prepared for the theft of your PC?
There's a couple of issues here -- including privacy, data recovery, deterrence, compensation -- each leading to different ways to answer the question: what can you actually do to prepare for the possibility? So use the comments to share your own experiences. How have you prepared for the theft of your PC?
Just build a gigantic tower PC with full water cooling rig, in a case with no good grip points, then strap it to the leg of your desk with plumber's tape and screws with security torx heads.
You know what else is dark? Hitler.
#DeleteChrome
First, track down one of those Dell laptops from the early 2000s - the two-inch thick ones which used desktop processors and weighed something like ten pounds.
Then take the ginormous power brick from that laptop, hollow it out, and hide your MacBook in there.
#DeleteChrome
A backup gun.
Biological weapons work best.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
>Thank god I live in Europe so burglars aren't armed or anything.
Yes, in Europe people that break into your house never carry any sort of weapon. And they are generally nice fellows that you can share a pint with afterward.
Yes Sir, but the question here was: What if all fails and the valuable piece of equipment has fallen victim to thieves?
And here I suggest, first and foremost, a bottle of tequila to wash away the pain.
And to gather some courage to detonate the thermo-nuclear charge, which was thoughtfully placed in the device, for just such cases.
Oh, and backups and encryption the people here are talking about sound like a wise thing too.
"we are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
Also, this question seems like a trap. If you want to know how I secure my stuff, you'll have to steal it and find out.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
My main PC is in a Corsair 800D case and weighs about 50 pounds. Nobody is walking away with it.
Did you miss a sentence where the PC is in a 10 ton safe/vault? I can easily carry a 50lb PC case to the van out front. I regularly carry a large bag of dog food and all my groceries over 1/2 mile (I live in a large city and walk to the grocery store) without any trouble at all, and I've moved apartments by myself a bunch of times. I don't think it's wise to rely on the weight of your case to save you.
Now... my ancient 8u rackmount case, that's mounted in a telco rack (which, for some unfathomable reason, the wife likes in the living room), would be impossible to steal without significant disassembly (the rack won't fit through the stairwell). That's still no reason to think it can't be stolen.