10 ways to keep your notebook safe while travelling

A few days back, I was just surfing the net and I found a very nice and helpful article: 10 ways to keep your notebook safe by Chris Pirillo. I thought I should share this with you. I would just explain that in brief.

Pad The Laptop:

Keep It On You: It says that you should keep the laptop bag with you all the time or atleast keep an eye on it.

Back Up Data:Make a back up copy of all the important data(like business files, or your pictures, music, video) regularly.

Encrypt Your Data:Keep your private data encrypted like business data, or your passwords. You can use any free software like truecrypt to do that.

Document Identifying Information: Make a note of the model no., serial no., etc. with you. So in case your laptop gets lost, you have to provide these small things to the airline department.

Use Strong Passwords:Make a password which you can remember but others can't. For more details on how to choose a password see 'passwords and how to make them'

Use a BIOS Password: Always use a BIOS password so that no one can even start your laptop without your permission.

Implement Remote Data Protection: Choose a product which can remotely destroy your data, if it comes in wrong hands.

Use Portable Storage: When travelling with some very important data make a copy on a thumb drive and take the same with you.

Just Leave The Laptop At Home: And the last if there is no need of laptop, keep it at home. Or even if there is a need to present some data take it on a thumb drive.

Increase privacy, enable BIOS password

I knew this trick well before I started blogging, but I never felt the need to put a BIOS password. I always thought it would become more irritating to type password to start the computer. But after reading the article 10 tips to keep your notebook safe by Chris Pirillo my mind changed and I asked BIOS for password when it starts.

Bios is the first program that runs when you press the power button. BIOS is responsible for loading your XP/Vista whatever. If you have a BIOS password enabled it will not be possible for any one to access your computer, in case your computer comes into unauthorized hands

To enter the BIOS setup program, sometimes called CMOS setup:

Turn on or reboot your laptop. Keep pressing 'del'[1] to enter the BIOS setup program.

In older computers a message appears to press DEL to enter setup.

When you do hit DEL at the right time, you'll see a menu screen.

As you can see there are two options that relate to passwords, Supervisor Password and User Password, these relate to controlling access to the BIOS Setup Program and the Machine Boot respectively.

Note that not all BIOS's have this password feature, your bios may not have it in which case you won't be able to restrict access to your computer in this way.

Select USER PASSWORD and you'll be prompted to enter a password:

You should now enter a password of up to eight characters (most BIOS's are limited to eight characters unfortunately). I recommend you use the full eight but take care that you choose something you'll not forget.

The BIOS will then prompt you to confirm the password, just type the same thing again.

Now you'll want to set your system to ask for that password every time it boots, so select the BIOS FEATURES SETUP option.

Fairly obviously, it's the Password Check option we're interested in, so select it and change the setting to ALWAYS.

Now navigate back to the main menu and select SAVE & EXIT SETUP. Your machine will then reboot and you'll be prompted for the password.

Each and every time you boot you'll be asked for password you chose.

Please note that this method of restricting access to your computer is not completely foolproof, there are ways around it. But it will stop or at least delay the majority of casual attempts to get access.

If you forget your BIOS password, consult your motherboard manual or if you don't have one, consult the website of the BIOS manufacturer.

[1] It's not always the DEL key some BIOS's use F2 or F10 or anothother key combination, check your motherboard manual for more details.

Delete particular url from IE history

This is a simple trick I think most of us know but it may sound good for newbies or whoever don't have a idea about this trick. No need to delete complete history and type repeated url s again next time just for the sake of removing specific URL .

Go to:

Registry editor

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs

in the right pane you'll see the urls .. jus delete the one which you don't want to appear again in IE add bar.

Note::

Use registry editor carefully. Make a back up of the registry before carrying out any tweaks.

i want to hide my files in an image

So, even you want to hide your files, but with some extra privacy. This method will hide your files in an image. Though the image will look the same but its size will increase to the size of your files.

 

 1. Gather the file you wish to bind, and the image file, and place them in a folder. For the sake of this demonstration, I will be using C:\New Folder

-The image will hereby be referred to in all examples as fluffy.jpg

-The file will hereby be referred to in all examples as New Text Document.txt

2. Add the file/files you will be injecting into the image into a WinRar .rar or .zip. From here on this will be referred to as (secret.rar)

3. Open command prompt by going to Start > Run > cmd

4. In Command Prompt, navigate to the folder where your two files are by typing

cd location [ex: cd C:\New Folder][see cmd tutorial for more details on how to use cmd]

5. Type [copy /b fluffy.jpg + secret.rar fluffy.jpg] (I ahve used brackets to differentiate the texts, don't use brackets)

Congrats, as far as anyone viewing is concerned, this file looks like a JPEG, acts like a JPEG, and is a JPEG, yet it now contains your file.

In order to view/extract your file, there are two options that you can take

a) Change the file extension from fluffy.jpg to fluffy.rar, then open and your file is there.

b) Leave the file extension as is, right click, open with WinRar and your file is there. 

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Secure your data with an image as password

If you're worried about the safety of your documents you should start using some encryption method to protect them.

PixelCryptor is probably one of the best options for your first steps into encryption. It enables you to protect your private documents by combining them into a package that is then encrypted with any photo of your choice.

The pixel data contained in this photo is what the program uses to protect your documents, by creating almost endless, hacker-proof combinations. And whenever you want to decrypt your documents, simply open the package with your documents and select the picture you used to encrypt it.

PixelCryptor may not offer as many security options and encryption methods as other tools, but it's very easy to use and probably the best choice for encryption newbies. On the downside, anyone who you're sending encrypted data too will need to have it installed.

This should be noted that, if the image used as a password is damaged or edited then the encrypted data is irrecoverable.

PixelCryptor is a fairly basic encryption tool, mainly addressed at novice users, which uses images to encrypt confidential data.