5 ms·

Lessons I learnt when my laptop was stolen

17 points by HackyGeeky 16y ago

jrockway 16y ago
I think TrueCrypt is the only good advice there; hiding a folder does nothing for your protection (people don't look at the stolen laptop for your credit card information, regexes do), and using hardware encryption just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, like consumer-level "hardware" RAID. (RAID controller dies; your data does too.) I'm still surprised that people don't encrypt all their personal information, especially on laptops. Truecrypt doesn't even require a reformat or reinstall -- download it, click a few buttons, and your data is safe and there's almost no speed hit.
- gte910h 16y ago
  I've thought about doing truecrypt a few times, but I'm afraid that will greatly complicate cross border trips
  - HackyGeeky 16y ago
    gte910h - Its super easy. Trust me. 10 mins. and you should be all set.
    - gte910h 16y ago
      I'm not talking about the time to install, doesn't seem that would be that big of a deal. But I'm afraid border patrol agents will see the truecrypt banner on boot up flag me as some sort of pedo or some such, and make my life hell as they don't believe I don't have a hidden partition. Or perhaps I'm overly worried about this sort of thing. Anyone have truecrypt installed and regularly/ever crossed borders in the last few years? Do they give you shit about if you just decrypt the disk for them?
      - HackyGeeky 16y ago
        What do you mean by "cross borders" ? I travel oversees and no one has booted my laptop ever to see what's inside. Maybe I've never traveled to those countries.
        gte910h 16y ago
        US border patrol wants to boot your notebook often to check for kiddie porn. I don't have anything, even movies, no pirated software, etc, however I don't want the existence of the true-crypt program alone to be an issue with overzealous border patrol people
        jrockway 16y ago
        "often"? I've been stopped by customs a number of times, and they have never made this request. It's too bad, because I want to be the test case.
        gte910h 16y ago
        I don't actually have a clue how "often' this is versus it not being. I've not been stopped the few times I've traveled internationally. I just know TC in particular has been a thorn in the side of the FBI and that border control people have enough powers to be rather annoying if they get pissed off.
      - gdl 16y ago
        I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with border agents, but I would assume that they'd leave you alone as long as everything looked normal at a casual glance. A couple example suggestions for that: 1) TrueCrypt let's you change the bootup text, and can be set not to visibly show keystrokes when entering your password. This means that you can make it boot into what appears to be a standard "No operating system found" type error message, which will not react at all until you type your correct password and hit enter. Unless they're dedicated enough to examine the boot sector they wouldn't be able to tell that it's not just a corrupted drive. Toss an OS install disc in your bag for added realism. 2) TrueCrypt will boot from CD into an encrypted drive. Using this to your advantage, install a small Linux partition and set your computer up to boot into that unless the boot CD is inserted. Nothing suspicious at all remains on the drive except for a parition of apparently random data, which they'd have to be pretty suspicious already to even bother looking for. You could copy the TrueCrypt bootloader back onto the drive to boot without the CD for convenience if you're not going to be crossing borders for a while. ...And there are probably other ways. The TrueCrypt documention offers a number of suggestions on how to look minimally suspicious to suit whatever level of paranoia you may have.
  - auxbuss 16y ago
    It doesn't and it's so easy. And it's free. There's no excuse. Someone walk off with my laptop, or the biz's, it's a shrug of the shoulders, fill in the insurance claim, and back to work.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    By complicate, you mean simplify. "We need to search your laptop." "Sure, take it." Laptops are disposable when they're encrypted.
    - gte910h 16y ago
      Oh man, it looks like full disk encryption isn't supported under OS X :(
- ja27 16y ago
  I use TrueCrypt for some pieces of data and even on entire backup drives, but haven't bitten the bullet and did the whole boot drive yet. Any gotchas / tips?
keefe 16y ago
"so that even if someone gets in, they have to have basic skills to get to your data" if they want your data, they'll just plug the HDD in to a different machine and bypass windows security that way, OS passwords only dissuade the most casual criminal
- jcl 16y ago
  Unless I'm mistaken, none of his suggestions use OS passwords. All of his suggestions protect against plugging the hard drive into another machine (except hidden folders, which only work against non-tech-savvy thieves, anyway).
  - HackyGeeky 16y ago
    jcl - Passwords are great, the more complicated, the better. However when your laptop is stolen, why would they put their time in it cracking your OS password. If plugging the HDD in another computer bypasses it completely.
  - keefe 16y ago
    yeah, unless the drive content is encrypted you can just mount it on another system and take whatever you want. You can even boot to linux off a usb and do this.
- HackyGeeky 16y ago
  But once you have truecrypt, it doesn't matter if they plug your HDD into a new computer. That was my main concern I was trying to solve here.
  - keefe 16y ago
    Yes indeed, encryption is the only real solution. Of course, if you're really trying to hide something then you need to make sure the unencrypted ones aren't leaking somewhere.
frou_dh 16y ago
If you don't backup your entire drive, it's still useful to know which files were on it. I have launchagent (OS X cron equiv) dumping a full file listing on schedule.
- gaius 16y ago
  I cannot recommend Time Capsule highly enough.
  - frou_dh 16y ago
    With a laptop I prefer to skip external drives and go purely offsite.
jrots_ 16y ago
Full disk encryption (hardware based) on SSD seems like an interesting option for this but not many manufactures have this. Samsung has done this, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_encryption_comes_to_SSDs_for_mobile_devices_laptops http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_enc..., but I cant find the market ready product.

17 points by HackyGeeky 16y ago

I think TrueCrypt is the only good advice there; hiding a folder does nothing for your protection (people don't look at the stolen laptop for your credit card information, regexes do), and using hardware encryption just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, like consumer-level "hardware" RAID. (RAID controller dies; your data does too.) I'm still surprised that people don't encrypt all their personal information, especially on laptops. Truecrypt doesn't even require a reformat or reinstall -- download it, click a few buttons, and your data is safe and there's almost no speed hit.

gte910h 16y ago
I've thought about doing truecrypt a few times, but I'm afraid that will greatly complicate cross border trips
- HackyGeeky 16y ago
  gte910h - Its super easy. Trust me. 10 mins. and you should be all set.
  - gte910h 16y ago
    I'm not talking about the time to install, doesn't seem that would be that big of a deal. But I'm afraid border patrol agents will see the truecrypt banner on boot up flag me as some sort of pedo or some such, and make my life hell as they don't believe I don't have a hidden partition. Or perhaps I'm overly worried about this sort of thing. Anyone have truecrypt installed and regularly/ever crossed borders in the last few years? Do they give you shit about if you just decrypt the disk for them?
    - HackyGeeky 16y ago
      What do you mean by "cross borders" ? I travel oversees and no one has booted my laptop ever to see what's inside. Maybe I've never traveled to those countries.
      - gte910h 16y ago
        US border patrol wants to boot your notebook often to check for kiddie porn. I don't have anything, even movies, no pirated software, etc, however I don't want the existence of the true-crypt program alone to be an issue with overzealous border patrol people
        jrockway 16y ago
        "often"? I've been stopped by customs a number of times, and they have never made this request. It's too bad, because I want to be the test case.
        gte910h 16y ago
        I don't actually have a clue how "often' this is versus it not being. I've not been stopped the few times I've traveled internationally. I just know TC in particular has been a thorn in the side of the FBI and that border control people have enough powers to be rather annoying if they get pissed off.
    - gdl 16y ago
      I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with border agents, but I would assume that they'd leave you alone as long as everything looked normal at a casual glance. A couple example suggestions for that: 1) TrueCrypt let's you change the bootup text, and can be set not to visibly show keystrokes when entering your password. This means that you can make it boot into what appears to be a standard "No operating system found" type error message, which will not react at all until you type your correct password and hit enter. Unless they're dedicated enough to examine the boot sector they wouldn't be able to tell that it's not just a corrupted drive. Toss an OS install disc in your bag for added realism. 2) TrueCrypt will boot from CD into an encrypted drive. Using this to your advantage, install a small Linux partition and set your computer up to boot into that unless the boot CD is inserted. Nothing suspicious at all remains on the drive except for a parition of apparently random data, which they'd have to be pretty suspicious already to even bother looking for. You could copy the TrueCrypt bootloader back onto the drive to boot without the CD for convenience if you're not going to be crossing borders for a while. ...And there are probably other ways. The TrueCrypt documention offers a number of suggestions on how to look minimally suspicious to suit whatever level of paranoia you may have.
- auxbuss 16y ago
  It doesn't and it's so easy. And it's free. There's no excuse. Someone walk off with my laptop, or the biz's, it's a shrug of the shoulders, fill in the insurance claim, and back to work.
- jrockway 16y ago
  By complicate, you mean simplify. "We need to search your laptop." "Sure, take it." Laptops are disposable when they're encrypted.
  - gte910h 16y ago
    Oh man, it looks like full disk encryption isn't supported under OS X :(
ja27 16y ago
I use TrueCrypt for some pieces of data and even on entire backup drives, but haven't bitten the bullet and did the whole boot drive yet. Any gotchas / tips?

keefe 16y ago

"so that even if someone gets in, they have to have basic skills to get to your data" if they want your data, they'll just plug the HDD in to a different machine and bypass windows security that way, OS passwords only dissuade the most casual criminal

jcl 16y ago
Unless I'm mistaken, none of his suggestions use OS passwords. All of his suggestions protect against plugging the hard drive into another machine (except hidden folders, which only work against non-tech-savvy thieves, anyway).
- HackyGeeky 16y ago
  jcl - Passwords are great, the more complicated, the better. However when your laptop is stolen, why would they put their time in it cracking your OS password. If plugging the HDD in another computer bypasses it completely.
- keefe 16y ago
  yeah, unless the drive content is encrypted you can just mount it on another system and take whatever you want. You can even boot to linux off a usb and do this.
HackyGeeky 16y ago
But once you have truecrypt, it doesn't matter if they plug your HDD into a new computer. That was my main concern I was trying to solve here.
- keefe 16y ago
  Yes indeed, encryption is the only real solution. Of course, if you're really trying to hide something then you need to make sure the unencrypted ones aren't leaking somewhere.

frou_dh 16y ago

If you don't backup your entire drive, it's still useful to know which files were on it. I have launchagent (OS X cron equiv) dumping a full file listing on schedule.

gaius 16y ago
I cannot recommend Time Capsule highly enough.
- frou_dh 16y ago
  With a laptop I prefer to skip external drives and go purely offsite.

jrots_ 16y ago

Full disk encryption (hardware based) on SSD seems like an interesting option for this but not many manufactures have this. Samsung has done this, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_encryption_comes_to_SSDs_for_mobile_devices_laptops http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131684/Full_disk_enc..., but I cant find the market ready product.