Notebook computers are portable and could be lost or stolen much more easily. The risks could be even higher if sensitive information or confidential data is kept in these notebooks. Additional measures should be taken to reduce the risk of information leakage.


Protective Measures:

- Avoid leaving your laptop computers unattended and unsecured. If needed, secure them with Kensington locks or lock them in a secure area/storage physically. However, Kensington locks do not protect the hard drive of a notebook computer from being removed physically. So, users should encrypt the hard disk or data files so that even when it is physically removed, intruders could not read the data on it.

- If you have to store and transfer sensitive data on your laptop, file encryption is a must.

- Set up a pre-boot BIOS level or hard drive level password to prevent intruders from booting up your notebook computer.

- Use password protected screen-saver and activate it when you are away from the computer to protect against viewing by trespassers.

- Always use a strong password (longer than 8 characters ideally with random characters or numbers) to protect your computer so that it could not be guessed easily.

- Limit your risk! If you do not need to access sensitive data, do not store any on notebook computers.

- Keep your password or encryption keys securely.

- Ensure that your Operating Systems (i.e. Windows/macOS), anti-virus and anti-malware tools are up-to-date.

- Disable guest accounts on your notebook which hackers could use to log in your computer.

- Some computers such as MacBooks have GPS function to help you locate the lost computers.

- If you have any doubts, do not visit unknown websites or open attachments in unsolicited emails. Malicious malware might infect your notebooks and open up a backdoor for hackers.
 


Encryption Tools:

- Disk encryption tools like BitLocker and VeraCrypt are free for Windows platform while FileVault is for MacOS. But note that some tools only protect intruders from reading the data on the hard drive after removal.

- File Encryption: 

  • 7-Zip or WinZip could archive a number of files in a zip file with the option to encrypt the file.
  • Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and Adobe PDF support encryption too.

- AES is the preferred encryption algorithm which is considered sufficiently strong. Use AES whenever it is available.

- Encryption protects files from unauthorised access. If you forget the password or lose the encryption keys, you will lose your data forever. Manage your passwords and keys properly.

 

Please also refer to the University’s Information Security Policy and related documents on www.eduhk.hk/infosec