Laptop Security: Past, Present

The first time someone left their ten pound IBM Thinkpad running Windows 3.11 in the back of their car, only to return to a broken window and a missing laptop, the need for better protection arose. The luxury of portability that a laptop brought a user came at a price, the risk of having their computer compromised. The responsibility fell heavily on the user as well as on the organization. Companies struggled to not only protect the physical equipment but also the sensitive information stored on their laptops. Through this need separate genres of security were created. The simplest is the physically protection of the laptop. This is technology that helps prevent the actually stealing of the laptop. Companies found however, that not everyone could be protected at all times, and eventually laptops would still get stolen. This prompted the revolution of data security. Data security represents the attempt to protect the user's data from malicious people after the laptop is stolen. This is different from other security solutions like firewalls and file encryption, which protects the data while the user is still in possession of their laptop and using it for their daily work. This paper will discuss the physical safety measures as well as post theft data protection.