Portable Property Protection
Most of us would like to think that we won't be the victim of a crime, especially the non-violent kind like personal property theft. But it can happen to the best of us, especially if the item is pocket-size and can easily be stolen.
With the increased popularity of personal electronic devices, almost everyone carries a cellphone, laptop, PDA, or digital player on a daily basis. While the items themselves are relatively easy -- though not inexpensive -- to replace, it's the information they contain that's often invaluable and not so simple to recover (unless you keep data backups of everything -- which the average person does not). If your device contains a lot of sensitive or hard to recover information, you face the risk of loosing that information if some unscrupulous person decides that they deserve to have your property more than you do.
It's probably worth your time to consider protecting your property by registering it with a serial number tracking service. An example of such a service is SmartProtec, a free online tracking database that lists serial numbers for electronic devices. Check the web site for details. You can register the serial numbers for your cellphone, laptop, PDA, digital player and other items and attach a registration notification label to the item. If your property is lost or stolen it can easily be traced via the database.
There are also paid services that offer personal property protection, with added benefits. For example, Absolute Software and The CyberAngel make products that alert the companies when a computer that has been reported stolen logs onto the Internet. The companies use satellite tracking technology to locate the stolen computer.
Finally, always keep two or three copies of everything contained on your personal electronic devices. You can back them up to an online server (safest), CDs, or a zip drive.