Laptop Security

lindabea

When I asked this question, I was hoping to get some technical advise about how to secure my data before I take my laptop for repair. However, little did I realise that this would turn into an issue about whether or not I am being paranoid. Nevertheless, to those who think I'm being paranoid, let me ask you this as an analogy:

How would you feel if someone breaks into your home and is able to look through your private documents and personal belongings, such as passport, driving license, savings/investments/income details, personal photos, names/addresses of family and friends, etc etc

They may or may not use any information for their gain, but wouldn't you feel a sense of vulnerability if not anger, that someone has invaded your personal privacy without your consent??

that

lindabea wrote: »

This shows how careful one needs to be and not to take too many things on face value. My lesson in life has been to question everything and not to trust anyone until I have full confidence in their credibility.

Since you feel this way, you have no choice but to remove your disk, before giving them the laptop.

They should be able to test the laptop via boot cd or usb which they should have, or you can also download linux mint and put that onto a stick or cd.

After all they are only fixing a power button.

joeypesci

You're not being paranoid. Techs do snoop, some just out of curiosity. Although wrong. Problem is, if you bitlocker the whole drive and use a pin to require a boot, they may not be able to fix whatever the issue is, as it could be a software issue.

Best option is to remove everything you don't want them to view to an external drive (could use this as a backup later) and then delete the said files from the laptop. The secure wipe the free space with CCleaner to stop file recovery.

If a tech is told "Don't look at my files". They'll look at your files. It's how a certain pop star was caught with certain files on his laptop when he told the PC World tech "Don't look at my files".

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But as has been said. If you know how or know someone who does, just remove the drive. They won't need it to repair a power button. If they claim they do, they are bent. You don't need the Windows boot drive plugged in to fix a sticky power switch.

agrinnall

It won't necessarily help with the data you currently have on your hard drive, but in future I would suggest that you do as I do and keep files that you don't want anyone else to see on USB hard drives (note the plural - never have only one version of your important data).

wongataa

that wrote: »

Since you feel this way, you have no choice but to remove your disk, before giving them the laptop.

As suggested in post 3!