No Worries about the Theft of Notebook PC by Triple Safety Gear

Office worker Han Kyung-Tae (33) was robbed of a Notebook PC in the middle of last month.

He was angry as it was expensive as much as 2 million won, and the more embarrassed as he lost all the important data of the business acquaintances in addition to the documents of the company.

Fortunately, Mr. Han got his notebook PC returned in a week. That was because he had set the environment to make it automatically log in the site G, a data share site, the moment his notebook PC comes on-line.

Mr. Han opened the site G immediately after he lost the notebook PC. As he anticipated, he could find out that somebody had used Internet three or four times using his ID. As the thief didn’t know that the notebook had been set to auto log in, the location of contact was recorded whenever he used Internet.

Mr. Han informed it to the police immediately, and the police could arrest the thief by securing the record of log in and IP address.

More and more people use notebook PC due to its convenience, but as much possibility of theft it has. One way to find the lost notebook PC is to set it to automatic log in the moment it comes on-line as Mr. Han did.

Anti-theft hardware also is popular. It is a device to fix a notebook PC to the desk or something, or it sounds an alarm when it is carried. Typical goods of this kind are `Defcon` series of Targusland (www.targsland.com).

`Defcon 1` of Targusland is an anti-theft alarm system, which is locked by turning numbers as it is being inserted in the Kensington Lock hole at the side of a notebook PC. It makes a big alarm noise when the cable is cut or notebook PC is moved a little. Defcon 1 costs 77,000 won, and Defcon CL, which omits alarm system, 59,000 won.

There is PC lock system preventing leakage of information by not allowing other people to open the information stored in the PC. Normal key like `USB connector`, `Lockey`, which Sunrise System (www.sunrisesystem.co.kr) placed on the market, shows an interrupting image when the key is out of the port at the moment of rest.

Lockey has similar to the screen saver, but it operates simultaneously with the pluck out without the concern about the leakage of password. It is cheap at the price of 33,000 won, and easy for carrying and keeping, and has the advantage that it can be used for all kinds of desktop PC and notebook PC as it uses standard USB connector.

changkim@donga.com