I need advice on laptop & backpack locks.

Like most people with a laptop, I want to protect my investment. After seeing the video of the 0'3 Kensington Decon lock being defeated by a mear toliet paper roll I'm more cautious as to what I want protecting my laptop. And watching some Toool videos paranoid me even more. I came back to reality by thinking realitically about what envirments I'll be in and what kind of threats I'm vurnurable to.

There are three main environments that I'll be in which would possibly lead to a theft.

- First & most common environment would be during an exam in a classroom. All the students are usually required to place their bags up in the front of the room. Due to the large room. dark lighting, and volume of students, its very possible for someone to simply grab a backpack unnoticed. Here, simply securing the backpack to a chair (even one that can itself be taken) should be more then enough to protect my bag. A student is not going to bolt out of the classroom unnoticed with a bag locked to a chair. Even the cheapest of cable locks will be effective. Audio (motion dedection) locks however, can not be used for obvious reasons. And I'd personally prefer to avoid combination locks. Because I'd be locking my backpack and not the laptop, I need something that's very quick to open.

- Second environment is the campus library: there are study rooms that are basically just windows, frames, and a ceiling; This is the environment I'm most likely to leave for 5 minutes to take a restroom break & backpacks are not allowed there (I guess to prevent book theft and vandalism?). Audio alarms while being effective - the potential of a false alarm is to big of an issue. Because I could be gone for a few minutes, locking the backpack itself is not a smart move. Here I'll need to lock the laptop which will also make it easier to spot. A large bolt cutter is unrealistic, however small ones that can be hidden in a backpack is a threat. Also because we're dealing with time, a theif could walk into the room, look at the lock and laptop, and take more time determining if its worth attempting to steal. A thick or cut resistant cable would be ideal here. Lock picking resistance is also a plus.

- Third would be at work in the break room: its a small retail store with no more then 10 (usually 5-8) employees at a time. The threat here comes from opportunist theives. It's possible an employee could try to steal it but that threat is pretty low. Its more likely a customer would see the laptop while an employee is entering or leaving and try to do a grab and run. A basic cable should be enough, however the store does sell computer tool sets and they have been used to steal cameras and laptops that were on display locked with anchors and alarms - these theifs are professional but never target the break room or office (located in the far back of the store). The pros have the luxury of preparing and knowing exactly what their going to steal and how they'll be doing it. If my laptop is secured and kept out of public view it shouldn't get stolen.


Looking at these threats I came to like the RoadWire Keycard Travel Lock. It comes with a short cable for luggage, and a longer cable w/ an adapter for laptops. Instead of a standard key, it uses a card key (think hotels). It's faster to open then combinations and because it's not a common lock type, a young thief that happened to pick up a few tricks might pass on this lock. This applies to environment two; where if he had extra time to inspect the lock, I'm betting that he would be unfamiliar with it and just move on. The downside to this lock is that the cable doesn't appear real thick - but little information is given on the website so I don't really know if its good or not.



I'm wondernig if anyone knows if these can be defeated really easily with an ID card. I'm assuming I'm not dealing with pros that would have an advanced lockpick kit and a Dr.'s degree in stealing. And again, how good is the cable?

Would you recommend another solution? I should also note the laptop is a IBM Thinkpad T43 with fingerprint reader & strong bios password. I just very recently bought the laptop and have yet to take it anywhere.

 

I'm also going to buy a STOP (Security Tracking of Office Property) non-removable metal sticker plate (left) and a StuffBak Reward sticker (right). The STOP sticker makes it a little more difficult to sell a stolen item - and hopefully the fingerprint reader and bios password will also help that too. And with the Reward sticker at least the theft or an honest person has some insentive to try and return the item. StuffBak gives a small $20 valued reward (for their stickers) but they allow you to put up your own pre-paid award and the person returning the item can be completely anonymous. Also you pay for shipping cost.

It's really just cheap insurance. I thought about getting CompuTrace but I figure it's worthless if the bios and OS are locked up. It only works if it connects to the internet and the thief doesn't wipe the hard drive first.

 

I personally want to see where you saw this Kensington lock get messed with by a toilet paper roll and what kind of key did it take...

 

Here: http://www.toool.nl/kensington623.wmv

A BIC pen also works pretty effectively against those locks.

 

It's hard to believe how the toilet paper roll actually pushed the 7 rods in perfectly to their variable set distances. I think I'll try it at home.

 

that guy in the video is a famous lockpicking expert. He holds workshops and explains how locks work and how most (even very expensive locks) are easy to by pass if you just know what to do.

With that lock, he's not picking at the pins - he's pushing all the pins up and turning it so that when the pins fall back (for a split second) they'll all be at the right level. From the guy's workshop, he explains that there are two ways to pick a lot - the pick method (which isn't really picking) and the bump method which is actually a lot easier but only works on more expensive anti-pick locks.

it's really cool what that guy teaches. You might like to check out his website ( http://www.toool.nl) where he has free video downloads.