Stolen Laptop, Hardrive, tomtom one etc can they get anytthing off them?

Little_John

Gutted for the break in.
Great news about the drive and backups are vital. the way I do things is to copy stuff to another drive as a first backup, I also have important stuff on a 4GB memory stick and that is backed up on DVDr. and if all that fails my server backs everything up to a tape every other day.

The biggest shock was I find it difficult to believe that you don't have insurance for your own home. just think about what you have in your living room, TV, DVD player, carpets, furniture, decoration wall paper etc light fittings these are all items that is not covered by buildings insurance. go to the kitchen replacing a kitchen isn't cheap now never mind the appliances.
Burglary they only take the stuff they can shift easily laptops, mp3 players, cash cameras the stuff people wont question buying down the pub. TV's no longer get taken as they are bulky, dvd players and videos as they don't cost much to buy.

Contact your buildings insurance company and see what they can sort you out for, maybe take the extra cover that will cover your daughters stuff, taking a policy out for herself will probably be expensive sa the property doesn't seem very secure.

Lady_K

Well it will probably shock you even more to know that I actually didnt have buildings insurance for 4 years when hitting really bad financial problems. I only got it back last year and just started with the buildings as mine is more because of old subsidence and I just couldnt afford any more for contents on top.

I didnt realize but when I went to my mortage company to remortgage the house to try n save some money one of thier questions was 'who is your buildings insurance with?' and I said no one at the moment. They were horrified and informed me that I was breaking the contract of the mortgage and they would be back in touch with me within 14 days for proof of buildings cover! That scared me I had tried to put it to the back of my mind but the realization that if there was a fire or anything I'd lose everything and so would my children was a big reality shock. It was a great struggle to get cover because of the subsidence and also because I hadnt had cover for 4 years made it worse. I had to get legal papers for the subsidence which was a lot of hassle and worry and my insurance will always be high

To be honest I don't have much that a burglar would want to take and I have a disability so stay in almost all of the time and thought contents was low risk for me but if it can be used to cover my daughter too I will look into it

Gahddenbooi

IvanOpinion wrote:

Keep all data in Truecrypt data partitions (make them no more than 4.5Gb in size and they can be easily backed up onto DVD). This is free software that will protect any data from prying eyesand once installed it is virtually invisible to the user.Ivan

Excellent suggestion this. If you have a bit of a gander through the website, you can set up the encryption as tight as you need it to be.

I use it on a daily basis, and it's brilliant. (and brilliantly simple)

ka7e

I'm glad your daughter hasn't lost all her saved work, that sort of thing you can't put a monetary value on! My kids back up their work to pen drives and usually have it on our home PC as well as their laptops.
But she still needs to get some insurance if she intends to replace her laptop etc. Student lets are an easy target for thieves as they usually contain large numbers of portable valuables that have a decent re-sale value. There may also be a lot of people that visit the house that aren't known to all the occupants.
There is the real possibility that the house could be targeted for a second "visit", when the thief thinks the items may have been replaced.
An extra expense will be that insurance policies usually stipulate what type of locks should be fitted and that windows should be lockable as well. Your daughter's landlord should be able to claim for those when he puts in a claim for repairs to doors etc. Ask for proper locks to be put on individual bedrooms, too.

Lady_K

Her friend asked the landlord if he could fit an alarm and he said no but he may think about fitting a dummy one and just to leave lights and radio on. She also asked him if they could have better locks like a yale lock on thier room doors but the landlord said that he had looked into it and found that it was against fire regulations, not sure how true that is.

Yes we are worried when she gets it replaced they could be targetted again. She is also worried about just being in the house, they plan not to leave 1 person in alone but that is not going to be easy at all.

They have completely wrecked her door and even taken the brickwork from around the frame. They must have used a tool because there were square marks around the bits of the wall that were remaining. To completely ram down a door on the street they really didnt care who got in thier way and shes going to be scared being there even when shes not alone.

The landlord has not secured her doorway either, its left completely open for anyone to go in. She has come home again tonight after going to see how things are there but obviously she couldnt sleep there and couldnt bring everything in the room back with her so shes worried about the rest of her stuff. Surely he should have made the door secure and hes just glued the front door and the others twos doors and just said it will take 24 hours to dry dont touch it

jamesebaker

X-Drive is a good place to go for some free online storage. Create an account and they give you 5Gb of free space which is generally enough for all your main files.

With regards to the security of the information, unfortunately there will be numerous traces left on the laptop which allow your daughters data to be gleaned depending on what websites she has been on. The banking is probably the least of her worries as when you log on to banking websites, they generally ask for different characters of passwords each time so the data remains secure. It would be advisable to re-visit as many websites she is signed up to e.g e-mail, ebay etc, login and change her passwords.

It would also be a good idea to cancel all her credit and debit cards as past transactions may contain details. Also, get a hold of her credit report from experian and you can also add extra security to credit checks so that if anybody tries to open credit cards in her name, she will be alerted.

Most likely the laptop will be wiped and resold so you won't have to worry about what will happen, but better safe than sorry.

If you need any more help feel free to contact me.

P.S. X-drive is at https://www.xdrive.com - now owned by aol.

everythingblogcast

AOL XDrive is free and gives you 5GB. All you need is an AOL email address that anyone can get.

justpaper

i dont think online space is the answer,. as the upload speed is pretty crap in the uk plus uploading and downloading work all the time would just be a hassle,. im sure ur better off getting a 20£ 1gig pen drive then anything else dont work taking up alot of space,. aso for the laptop,. remember the make and model and keep a look out on ebay,u never know.

cant they all chip in and take out inc/ cover now... ?

jamesebaker

Online storage is the only way to overcome the problem of theft. Its easier to backup on an external hard drive, but if that is stolen as well, then you're up the creek!

If you set it to upload over night then its not too bad and once you've got all your files on its just the occasional updating.

The other option is to get a few Gmail accounts and upload using the Gspace plugin for mozilla firefox.

Lady_K

The others wont want shared cover now because they already have it themselves but something will have to be sorted out definitely