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How to protect your business hardware (part I):

Under this article, you will learn some easy and commonly used steps in order to protect your business data and prevent hardware theft.
According to a Freedom of Information request that was made by Via Sat, over 180,000 digital devices were reported to the police as lost or stolen last year. It was noted last year also that Glasgow City Council fined £150,000 around US$250,000, AU$270,000, for losing 74 unencrypted laptops that contained the bank details of almost 6,000 people. With more sensitive information now being stored on portable digital devices, it is very much essential that all possible measures must be always taken in order to protect them from theft.

“How an organization can fail to notice that 74 unencrypted laptops have gone missing beggars belief,” said Ken Macdonald, the ICO assistant commissioner for Scotland. “The fact that these laptops have never been recovered, and no record was made of the information stored on them, means that we will probably never know the true extent of this breach, or how many people’s details have been compromised.” he further commented. What’s more, your business also has a responsibility to protect the data stored on these devices, as part of the Data Protection Act, which states:

“Where the information held on a laptop or other portable device could be used to cause an individual damage or distress, in particular where it contains financial or medical information, they should be encrypted.”

Protect and find:

Taking care of data protection is of course only one part of a robust IT protection policy. Clearly, for any business which is running fast or smooth, the loss of any sensitive data is a major concern. The good news is that your enterprise is not powerless to act upon. There are a number of ways that all of today’s digital technologies can be protected from theft:

Visible deterrents:

This is often a very simple warning that the device is traceable is all that is needed to prevent a theft. One method is to use a tamperproof sticker linking the serial number of the device to a database. Immobilize quite offers a cost effective method to protect any kind of IT equipment from theft.

Invisible deterrents:

Mostly, some physical tags are all well and good, but what if you could secretly protect your digital devices without any outward sign? It will be more well and good, isn’t it? Well, it has been possible for several years in order to forensically tag any devices with a special liquid. Many big companies including Retinaguard and SmartWater in fact, offers an ingenious way to invisibly tag objects with unique codes.

Physical protection:

There are a number of solutions on the market that can offer a level of comforting physical protection. However, it must be strictly remembered, that they are a deterrent and not a guarantee of avoiding theft. One of the best known deterrents is the Kensington Lock which even offers a method of tethering your notebook PC to a desk or maybe to other secure objects.

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