It comes as no surprise to any organisation that laptop theft is increasing, but just stop for a minute and think about how easy it would be to steal a laptop in your school or office, and equally important, how easy would it be to sell it on?
Step 1. Physically prevent the theft in the first place
Prevention is always better than cure, so make sure you take all normal precautions against theft. However, the whole point of laptops are that they are mobile and we can’t ensure they are bolted down 24/7, so step 2 and 3 is probably where you want to really place your efforts.
Laptop trolleys
It sounds trivial, but do use a secure laptop trolley for storing and charging your laptops. Use a system that will log which user has taken out a laptop, so you are able to help track when damage or theft happens.
Admit defeat
It isn’t really what you want to hear, but unfortunately in certain areas laptops are repeatedly stolen or damaged, and the school/college simply have to accept that there are no more funds to keep replacing hardware, and look for a different solution.
The best alternative in these challenged areas is to look at integrated computer desks, where the cassettes are securely locked away inside, leaving nothing on display to damage.
PrinterVault
Printers and paper is less expensive than laptops, but many organisations still feel they are losing endless amounts of printer paper. With PrinterVault it is virtually impossible to open the printer tray without a key and it also gives you the ability to bolt the printer down to avoid theft of both printer and paper.
Step 2. Make it difficult to sell on
How often have you heard about thieves carefully planning to break into a local college and steal 60 laptops just for private use at home in their bedroom? Not often, most laptops are stolen for a quick easy re-sell, so if your laptops aren't easy to sell in the pub or on e-Bay, it is much less likely to be stolen in the first place.
Bespoke screenbacks
Selling a laptop with a school logo covering the entire screenback will require some explaining. Putting a branded laptop up for sale is risky and immediately raises suspicion, which in turn makes your laptops of no value in the wrong hands.
Barcode registered
This is a little invisible gem, but check with your laptop supplier if they provide this service. Ergo laptops are all barcoded and scanned, so we know every little component in every laptop on every order. If any are ever stolen, we can log the laptops stolen on our system and when someone rings up our support line asking for a new battery or power lead we will always ask for the serial number and instantly know if we are dealing with a stolen laptop – again making it really hard to re-sell it.
Step 3. Eliminate the damage
“It’s always the school down the road”, well one day it might not be, so make sure you have done everything you can to limit the damage in case your organisation does lose it’s laptops.
Encrypted hard drives
With data security such an important issue within schools, colleges and universities, this should be reflected in the security established around individual devices. The worry isn’t just in the lost hardware, it is as much about data available on that laptop, i.e. student data, staff data, salaries, sensitive information?
You may feel that the “pool laptops” used by students hold nothing confidential or sensitive, but for teacher and staff laptops it may be very appropriate to consider using encrypted hard drives to protect your data. There are different levels of security, so ask your suppliers.
So, when the awful day (hopefully doesn’t) come, and you find your school name is all over the local news after a break in and losing all your laptops, make sure you can at least say you have done everything possible to prevent it – both before and after. Make sure you can show the media your customised screenbacks, so everyone in the community will easily recognise the stolen goods, reassure everyone that sensitive the data is encrypted and ring up your supplier to log which laptops have been stolen.