tips to help you secure and protect your portable device

Steps to take before you leave the office

• Password-protect your portable device - Make sure that you have to enter a strong password to log in to your device. If possible use a “power-on” password. This prevents someone from booting up your laptop with a different Operating System on a CD, floppy disk, or flash drive.
• Have your laptop configured to boot from the hard drive first - By forcing your laptop to boot from the hard drive first, it prevents someone from rebooting your laptop from another drive e.g. floppy drive, CD, flash drive.
• Install and maintain firewall and anti-virus software – Protect portable devices from unauthorized access and malicious code the same way you protect your computer when at work. Install antivirus and firewall software and keep them updated.
• Be sure all critical information is backed up – Portable devices should not be the only place important information is stored.
• Remove information that is not needed – Don’t carry around sensitive and personal information on your laptop or other portable device that is not necessary to you or your work.
• Store your portable devices securely - When not in use, store portable devices out of sight and, whenever possible, in a locked drawer or file cabinet.
• Record identifying information and mark your equipment - Record the make, model and serial number of the equipment in a separate location so that if your portable device is stolen the information will be available to the authorities. Label your portable device with an asset tag or other identifying label.