How secure is the HP credential manager?

I have a hp 8510p notebook with a fingerprint reader and I can only login to windows if I either use a password or scan my finger.

Now let's say my laptop gets stolen, how safe would my data be? Would it be possible for an thief to bypass the login or maybe access the data in some other way?

What is the best way to protect my data?

 

If I remember right (for some reason I've had a streak of bad luck there), you can encrypt your HD. That would make it safer. I think that if someone wants your data bad enough there's not much that can stop them. You could also try a software encryption program and put in an insane password. Something I've thought about, what happens if your finger print scanner gets damaged? Does it actually need your finger print or does it just automatically put in a password you choose? There are also programs where you have to put a flash drive into your laptop to access certain data. The flash drive acts like a key to open folders of your choosing.

 

If you use the fingerprint reader software for Windows login or website form-filling, you aren't required to swipe your finger... you can always alternatively input the password using the keyboard. When you register your fingerprints for scanning, it ties the prints to your Windows login.

 

Right now the fingerprint reader is just a "joke".
i don´t want to be harsh, but the fingerprint reader is just an option to login to windows. so still there is the user windows user login with a user password. this can of course be "retrieved" or at least "brute-forced".
The fingerprint reader is just a nice feature, but it won´t make your laptop more secure. It´s just looking more secure.

But if you want to feel a little safer you should set up passwords for the power on and the bios. these should be different from your windows password.

And if you really want to be safe , you should enable disk encryption. For most cases, it should be enough to encrypt your data ( not the windows partition ) with the built in Windows EFS ( encrypted file system ). Indeed this is not very secure, since the efs is compromised. Some Russian hackers did crack it 2 or 3 years ago if i remember correctly.

In case you have very sensive data on your hdd, you can use the HP Protect Tools. Didn´t look far into the program, but i think i´ve seen the option to let the authentec hardware do the encryption of the files.
If you want to secure your files you should definitly encrypt them. But remember that encrypted files need to be de-crypted before using them. Of course it´ll take some time for windows to decrypt them before opening the files.

From my experience it does not make a lot of sense if you are working and earning money with your Laptop to encrypt all the files you have. You will experience a lot of lags in your productivity when you are encrypting. So do yourself a favour, if you want to protect your data, figure out which files really need to be protected, and which don´t. Otherwise this encryption thing will become really annoying.

Ps. if you do encrypt your files, you should backup your encryption key..... or you´ll be buttkicked when you need to reinstall windows. Since the EFS key is depending of your windows-installation you have to have this key backed up if windows crashes. Not that i´ve heard a lot about Microsoft Windows crashing ..... ;-)

best

 

I'm looking into the DriveLock feature right now and it seems to offer good protection for my hdd.

I'm not the CEO of a fortune 500 company, so my data is not THAT sensitive...
I just want to lock out someone how might steal my laptop and tries to get my e-mail, paypal, ebay, etc passwords.

 

wouldn't a bio passsword prevent all that