Due to recent thefts within our department, I wanted to write up a few suggestions for protecting your investment and data.
Probably the #1 Recommendation:
1) Save a copy backup copy of your data on portable media and take it home.
This simple process gives you something to go back to incase of practically any disaster: theft, fire, data corruptions, viruses, water damages, etc. all of which we have seen our fare share of at columbia in the past two years. Yes.... water damage.
If you have a lot of data, you may want to use a portable hard drive. Backup everything up and take it home with you once a month. This will give you something to go back to if disaster should strike. Remember: You are not only saving the data itself, but the time and person-power to re-create it.
2) Do not leave valuables in your office over night.
Sadly, I must recommend that you consider not leaving easily concealable valuables such as laptops, usb drives, portable hard drives, ipods, etc in your office. Just because there is often a locked door, this does not mean people cannot gain entry.
3) Secure your investments
It is not a bad idea to secure your laptops, desktop, monitors and/or external drives with a lock. Of course this is only a deterrent, but it could mean the difference between your equipment being there one minute and not the next...
Why lockdown a desktop? The data and components in there are just as valuable, easily stolen and disasterous. Internal hard drives and memory will fit just fine into a backpack. Locking the case closed and to a desk could deter this type of theft.
For computer security, I recommend Secure-IT.
They provide an excellent array of quality and fairly priced products.
3) Record your serial number, model number and mac address number.
These numbers are needed to uniquely identify your computer and provide the police with the info they need to return your investment.
4)Install PC PhoneHome
This software installs on your computer and sends an email to the vender every time its turned on with your serial number and mac address. If the computer is stolen, even if its been reformatted (with a standard formatting tool), when it goes on the network, it begins sending emails again. Once the company is alerted that your computer has been stolen, they monitor their email for your information and record the IP addresses and provide this to the police. Using this info, the police can track down the laptop location.
5)Keep your doors closed when not in your office.
I am guilty of this myself...but, based on recent events, we all need to be more proactive about protecting our work.
6)Report any suspicious activity or characters.