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It is not always practical or even necessary to take a laptop on a trip, so a little more steel is needed to be sure of its safety while it is unguarded. That is a job for CompuClamp. This aptly named solution provides a secure fixing for a laptop rendering it immobile. And it isn't a permanent feature; the clamp can be moved to any office desk, hotel room or wherever it is needed.

Cables for laptop security are a good visual deterrent to the opportunist thief, but tests have proven that, with just a little effort and a cutting implement, they are a removable feature.

The fact remains, like them or loathe them, security cables do serve a purpose, even if only as a deterrent. Of course, any determined thief will make light work of most cables if they are armed with stealth, surprise and a pair of bolt cutters but, without them, hardware is a target for the snatch-and-grab variety.

The tough Notebook Guardian certainly appears sturdy on initial visual contact - from lock to cable. It is made of steel with a strong looking keyed lock function, although PC Guardian does manufacture other locking choices such as the combination version illustrated. The cable is black vinyl coated and blends into the surroundings. We are still waiting for a manufacturer to use Day-Glo colors, which would certainly say "hands off."

The ability to carry large amounts of data in your pocket could mean the end of the obligatory laptop haul. But as much as it can transform a daily commute without the worry of laptop theft, it can compound other problems.

ABSPlus is probably better know in the backup and recovery market and so it will be little surprise that what we are now looking at is exactly that - and more. It is an ideal storage unit to regularly back up all laptop data. With the software supplied the device becomes the complete backup and restore, disaster recovery solution.

Chrison takes security seriously with three specific portable devices available, all using different technology and design methodology. The BioPico, as its name suggests, is a 128MB biometric USB storage device, small enough to look unimpressive, but big enough to be used safely without being too small.

The smallest Group Test product was the MSX-256 Memory Stick PRO. It comes in a small, neat, case. The documentation was not very helpful and, had we not used this type of hardware before, we may have become stuck, because the case itself was not that easy to open. Apart from this minor setback Memory Stick compatible hardware is also required, whether using a laptop, PC, digital mobile phone or digital camera. That said, a PC card adapter or a USB reader/writer is all that is needed for laptop use and, given the protection that is afforded, it's a small price to pay.

As with the BioPico, PicoDisk TECH 2 requires no driver installation for Windows 2000, Me or XP and it is only when using Windows 98/SE or Mac operating systems that drivers must be installed from the CD provided.
The TECH 2 is a small USB token similar to the iKey design many people are familiar with and a USB extension cable for those hard to get at USB ports on many PCs.

The thing about carrying data on a small plug-and-play device is that the majority of them are not secure. But, if it comes from the Chrison stable of products, you can be pretty sure it will be.

Having a laptop stolen can be stressful and demoralizing. But for many well-prepared, security conscious company executives it needn't be. ComputracePlus is an asset tracking software solution that can help to ease the problems associated with this type of loss, it can put control into the hands of the law enforcement officers that are assigned to your case and aid a swifter recovery. There is a high incidence of internal thefts reported with no way of catching the people responsible. But if employees also know that all equipment owned by their employers is easily traced through a solution such as ComputracePlus, many thefts might not occur.

With seven years behind it, Cyber Angel software has developed into a neat little package, which, apart from its tracking capabilities, also offers a CyberAngel Secured Drive. This requires password authentication but, once in, allows the user to keep all confidential data in total privacy in this protected drive. With on-the-fly encryption, the user does not need to worry about any data being revealed if the laptop falls into the wrong hands, using a choice of encryption algorithms to protect it such as Rijndael - AES 128 or 256 bit encryption, Blowfish 128 or 448 bit, Twofish 128 or 256 bit, Triple DES or DES. The virtual drive created by CyberAngel is accessed with the users password and is supported by 32-bit device drivers for fast access with little or no drop in performance.

Although it may not be possible to physically stop a theft from occurring, there are ways to track it if the worst happens.

As an alternative to costly proprietary tools, we sourced a variety of open source software, with the goal of emulating as much of the feature-sets offered by closed source products, such as EnCase and ProDiscover.

Unlike the data acquisition tools here, WinTasks is intended to give administrators a view of the running state of a system, helping to identify and track malicious activity.

EnCase from Guid-ance Software has been at the vanguard of forensics software for some time - and with good reason.
Now in version 4.14, the solution is a powerful ­ collection of correlation and analysis tools, designed to make the forensic investigator's job as easy as possible.

Now in version 11, pcAnywhere is one of the longest-running remote access applications for the PC. We can remember using an early DOS edition in the mid-to-late 1980s.

GoToMyPC takes a radically different approach to remote access. Instead of requiring users to dial into the host PC, the host PC maintains a passive out bound only link with GoToMyPC's servers.