Securing a laptop

A friend of mine had his house burgled and the thief got away with his laptop.This got me thinking.I use my laptop for online banking among other things ,and also use roboform to autofill debit/credit cards etc ,so theres a lot of info on my laptop.All i have is a simple password to get into my laptop ,and i know that there is lots of software like password revealing cds that can be put in the cd drive at boot ,that will show log on passwords etc.So my question is
1.Is there and really secure software that can "lock" a laptop so that if it were ever misplaced or stolen ,the hard drive or contents on it would be inaccessible?.I know that security services could read the harddrive ,but im talking about the opportunist thief that steals to make a quick buck.
tia
ellison

 

I recommend using truecrypt and encrypt the entire drive. It will then ask for a password on boot to access the encrypted drive. No kind of boot disk will be able to access the data without the password. see here for info: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ho...r_entire_hard_drive_for_free_using_true_crypt

you could also employ a computer tracking program like: http://zapeze.com/ Where you can erase everything on the computer remotely if it is stolen. But if you use the truecrypt full drive encryption with a good password there is really no need for this.

 

Hi..
Thanks for the suggestion of truecrypt.It seems to be just the thing im looking for.As a non techie ,are there any cons to this sort of software?.For example i regularly backup with shadow protect.Would this type of software affect any backup or security software such as antivirus by encrypting the files?,and if the av has protection would it stop true crypt from encrypting its files? or am i not understanding the nature of truecrypt correctly?.
tia
ellison

 

I made a similar query...I guess

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=262335

 

Check your BIOS on startup. If it has a Security section it may allow setting an internal hard disk drive password-newer PC's have this ability. It will be needed on startup/restart/resume from standby to access the disk and it will travel with the disk if the disk is moved to another PC.

 

From my understanding and the reason I haven't done this very thing yet is that when backing up it creates a backup file the size of the entire partition and incremental/differential backups are pointless due to their size if you backup offline. If you backup online the backups are unencrypted. Restoration can be an issue as well. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, which I would like to be.

 

Thanks ..im checking that thread out now
ellison

 

That sounds like a good idea .My laptop is newish so i will check that now
ellison

 

The bios in my laptop has options for setting a password for "USER" "SUPERVISOR" or "HDD".
Ive set for hdd which i belive is the hard drive and indeed when i boot ,im asked for a password to boot up.But what are the user and supervisor passwords for?
p.s the hdd password is only asked for after a shutdown ,not a restart (on my machine)
tia
ellison

 

Not sure of your exact settings but I'm used to seeing three passwords in BIOS:

Administrator-this will require a separate password to change BIOS settings.
System-this is a BIOS password to start up the PC. Usually replaced by the Administrator password if it is set.
Internal HDD-is set within the HDD so it travels with it if placed in another PC.

As an example, the System password would be required on startup only but you would still have access to the BIOS settings and Boot menu. The admin password would be required for BIOS settings access and startup. The HDD usually locks the drive for startup/restart/resume situations. Yours must be different and you would need to check the BIOS help or manual for your PC to be sure.

 

Thanks for the info.Ive just googled and one article mentions that a wrong hdd password entered more than 3 times can result in an inoperable laptop.I dont know if this is fact or if it applies to all hdd passwords and laptops,I just hope i dont forget my password after ive had a few beers
ellison

 

Does this protect from hooking the drive up as a slave? I have also heard that Ultimate Boot CD has a program that can reset the hdd password. Then there is always this to: http://www.hddunlock.com/

Truecrypt definitely the most secure way. But most thieves probably wouldnt figure out a way to get past the hdd password anyway...

 

I was just looking at at hddunlock wizard ,but apparently it doesnt work on 64bit systems.....yet.I think truecrypt is probably more secure ,but this hdd password seems the simplest.I guess the safest thing ,(though not the most convienent) would be to not store any confidential material on the laptop at all.
ellison

 

The HDD password will not allow a slave drive setup with the password protected drive. The unlock programs (one of which you point out) erase the data on the drive and re-certify it so your info is safe since it is gone. The AF recovery service that they supply requires you to send the drive to them and they say they can remove the passord and recover the erased data. I haven't tried that service so I have no idea how they certify the submitter as the drive owner or what the cost is.

For the type of protection the poster asked for in the original post, I'd think the HDD password would be enough.

 

I recommend using a Linux LiveCD. No traces, password stored nowhere.