Easy ways to protect laptop from thieves

 Every day millions of Americans log on and log in. In doing so, they leave a path of personal information on their computer.

"My whole business is on my laptop," said Diane White. "Everyone who works for me, all of their work product is on our laptops."

White runs a full service marketing and public relations company, working with clients all over the country. Everywhere she goes, her laptop goes with her.

"If it gets stolen I would like to get it back quickly," said White. "There is really important info on here. Some confidential info as well."

Diane is looking into getting protective tracking software installed. It's not a new service but experts say it has become increasingly popular lately.

But there's a catch. In order for any tracking software to work the thief must connect to the Internet.

"If a thief were to steal your laptop and it has importation information on it and they never connect to Internet, the program's no good," said Damon DoRemus with Geek Rescue.

DoRemus said the most popular tracking software he gets asked to install is Lojack for laptops .

"You can log in to software via Web interface and can send a command to delete the entire drive, can even send a command to open up the camera," said DeRemus.

If you have Apple products, chances are you already have tracking software. Using iCloud you can send a command to "find my iPhone" or "find my computer."

You can even wipe the device clean. But in order to really keep your personal information safe, experts recommend encrypting drives.

"There is a free tool out there called Truecrypt that allows you to encrypt an entire drive or specific info on the drive, because again, it's the data that's more important. Not the laptop itself," said DoRemus.

Finally, Microsoft says when traveleing, never leave your laptop unattended in your hotel room.  And in coffee shops, stores, and airports, never set it down next to you on the floor.  You can easily forget it, or it can become victim to a quick moving thief.

As always don't waste your money.

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