An increase in thefts of laptop computers from K-State offices, labs, and classrooms over the past few months point to a need for K-State faculty, staff, and students to be more diligent about protecting their laptops and the data stored on them. Virtually every theft was opportunistic, made easy by people leaving unsecured laptops in plain sight in an office, lab, or residence hall room with the door left open.
One campus theft recorded by a video surveillance camera showed that it only took six seconds for the thief to unplug the computer and make off with the power adapter and laptop. SIX SECONDS! Fortunately in this case, the criminal was identified from the video and the laptop was recovered, but not before it was reformatted and the student’s term paper lost. We were lucky in this case, since most stolen laptops are not recovered.
We make it too easy
The vast majority of these thefts are “thefts of opportunity” that are easily prevented.
- In a case this past week, a laptop was stolen from an office when a faculty member left for just a few minutes and left the door open.
- Two others (belonging to visitors to campus) were stolen recently from an unlocked classroom being used for a continuing education workshop.
- Three others were stolen from a common student office area that was unlocked.
Off campus, it seems like the majority of home or apartment thefts include a laptop computer or other technology.
Prevention
Since most thefts are opportunistic, prevention is fairly simple — eliminate the opportunity by:
- Never leaving an unsecured laptop unattended.
- Lock your office door every time you leave, even if for a short time. Just closing your door helps, but isn’t a complete deterrent — a laptop was stolen from a faculty member’s lab when the door was closed but unlocked. He was only gone for 30 minutes.
- Do not leave your laptop in plain sight, whether it’s in your office or especially in your vehicle.
- Buy a locking security cable and use it in your office, the lab, Hale Library, the Union, a coffee shop, a hotel room, and even your home. Cost is $15-$50. The Union Computer Store has several types available. This should be required equipment with every laptop purchase!
- Secure your laptop when you leave your office, even if you lock your office door (consider how many people have keys to your office), with the locking security cable or lock it in a cabinet. At the very least, put it out of sight.
Other precautions you should take include:
- Do not store confidential data on your laptop, but if you must, K-State policy requires that you encrypt the entire hard drive. K-State uses PGP Whole Disk Encryption product for this purpose.
- Regularly backup your data.
- Put a conspicuous, tamper-proof label on the laptop.
- Record the manufacturer, model, and serial number of the computer. Also determine the MAC address of the wireless and wired.
- Take photos of the computer from different angles and store them with the other identifying information.
For more information, see the PowerPoint presentation from the May 2008 SIRT IT security roundtable on laptop security.
We cannot prevent all laptop thefts on campus, but we can reduce the number of thefts dramatically if we take these precautions that will eliminate the opportunistic thefts.
