There's been a spate of thefts from cars recently in our area, police advice not to leave valuables in the car.
Fine, if you don't mind lugging laptops and handags around with you when you shop, walk dog etc.
But if my laptop got stolen i'd be mortified so i'd like to prevent such from happening so i'm looking at measures, any input or advice appreciated.
As it is I need a better laptop bag, how secure could something like this be?
The solution I came up with a long time ago when I lived in a fairly dodgy area was to make the boot independently lockable from inside the car with a device based on an old tractor clutch. One night I came home to find every car boot on the road open with no barrel in the locks apart from mine where the barrel was loose but the boot still closed.
The car was unreliable enough that I needed to carry a decent set of tools round with me to keep it running - back in my student days.
I also had a car radio that had been carefully doctored to look like it had already been stolen once so that it wasn't worth taking. One thief who got into the car lost 50p from his pocket. Ford locks were never much cop and a piece of bent tin would open them.
All that anything like that can do is discourage the casual snatch thief. Hidden out of sight is about the best you can realistically do.
If your laptop has a Kensington lock point I'd be inclined to fix that to a secure point inside the boot. You might need to fit an eyebolt or similar.
With modern cloud-based stuff even if you keep the data on the hard drive it's not so difficult to recover from a theft these days provided you keep "My Documents" backed up at home.
That's one good reason my my son never locks his car, saves broken windows - seriously. Most modern cars now have reasonably effective immobilisers so it's difficult to drive them away without the key and (usually) its transducer.
It might slow them down enough to spook them, but it would not deter someone serious.
On the laptop, good passwords, and full disk encyption will not stop them pinching it, but will ensure your data are unavailable to prying eyes later.
Back up your stuff - get an external drive to keep at home - do a regular backup. Save some important stuff to a Cloud server like DropBox or OneDrive.
They don't usually check the car is unlocked. They just automatically assume that it is locked and smash the window
No point locking the bag to the car. Even if the zip is locked as well, a thief could make a quick slash along the fabric of the zip with a Stanley knife and take the laptop, leaving the bag behind.
When I had a Ford Cortina Mk3 and both neigbours also had Fords any of our keys opened all 3 cars!
Plenty of Youtube videos showing how to remove Kensington type locks is seconds.
i) and get it stolen by a hacker
ii) and when dropbox or onedrive go down you lose your data
Its very unwise to trust important information to an online third party cloud type operation.
Assuming they are interested, of course.
No, don't you still have it on your laptop?
I think Martin's right. I was toying with ideas such as a forty quid security box bolted into the boot like a gun safe (brilliant for disputes over the last space in the supermarket car park - you just point at the box and ask "Do ya feel lucky, Punk?) but frankly, if someone has come equipped to pop open all the car boot locks then they'll make short work of that.
Locked in the boot in an ordinary bag is the most reasonable solution for most situations IMO - though I once worked for a company that made it clear their laptop was insured for all other risks - but if you left it anywhere in the car, you paid for it.
What are you trying to protect? The laptop or the data it contains? I keep all my sensitive stuff on a cryptolocker memory stick: if you don't guess the password in ten attempts it wipes the data and there's nothing on the laptop that would get anybody into my bank accounts or emails.
Memory stick in pocket, laptop in the boot. That'll do for me.
Nick
Why do you need to leave such items in a car so they can be seen ?
My cloud backups are strongly encrypted and only I have the keys.
I use another provider. In the unlikely event:
a) It's only a backup. It would be unlucky to lose that, and the primary data, at exactly the same time.
b) I have backups elsewhere too.
Sadly, thick thieves still break the windows :(
My sanity mainly.
I've worked too hard for too long to lightly put up with these ####s just helping their self to my gear.
I know. I'm doomed.
Not the case any more alas. Once they have access to the diagnostic port they can bypass the security systems.
Tim
I had a MkII austin healey sprite that had no door locks and could be started with a screwdriver.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required