protect my laptop + my privacy

I'm travelling to another location for a few months and I'll be taking my laptop with me. My only worry is that all my private information is on this laptop and if it was ever stolen I'd have a lot of problems especially financial wise and identity.

What can I do to prevent someone from accessing my computer details without my consent?
Are there any encryption programs or anything else I can do to help myself?

At the moment the location I'm in is safe. The computer has no password protection.

Any ideas anyone?

 

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/cryptosuite/

if you know diamondcs D) then you should know their reputation regarding building good software...it is payware though

http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/

this is a opensource encryption packet with a lot of interesting features...encrypting partitions/vaults and cascading (God I love that feature) with different algorithms.

it should make your system a fortress or at least on of your partitions lol

the one I use is invisible secrets for all the features you get, their support and the ease of use.

http://www.invisiblesecrets.com/

cheers

 

Thanks for the link. I actually tried using the internet before posting the topic. Unfortunately I couldn't find any useful links. Looking back I can say that the reason was that I used inappropriate terms on the search engine.
Anyone password is now on the system and i have incorporated Ctr + Alt + Del.
I am going to look into encryption of the hard drive using PGP.
I will engrave my name on the back of my computer.

I looked into these programs which alert the police if someone connects to the web with your computer.
Are they worth it? Anyone else use them? I don't like the fact that whenever you connect to the web the computer automatically connects to their server to make sure it's not stolen. Worried about privacy here.

Thanks again.

 

Hi Infinity
I've just read your reply. I'll have to look into these encryption software you've linked to.
Which of them would you recommend in terms of ease of use for the inexperienced?
Thanks!

 

you're quite welcome

pgp is infamous regarding encryption, very good and tested by all known cryptographers, you should be safe with that. (your data too btw)

I wouldn't use that personally. no sir. maybe you could post a link to such a service? so we can verify it? I guess this could be interesting. and I don't know anyone using such a service.

you betcha

personally, pgp is one of the best, that is for sure.

userfriendly ... hmmm ... to be honest: cryptosuite and invisible secrets are very userfriendly but payware.

truecrypt is free, very very good (opensource) and uses some very nice features and in fact it is pgp for disk. no file encryption (too bad) but maybe in the feature.

I cannot tell you what I would take cause I allready did

it is up to you

Inf