Stolen laptop - what to do?

If your laptop has been stolen, we will show you in this practical tip what you should do and how you can protect yourself from the loss of your notebook or your data in the future.

Precaution: Protection against theft of laptop and data

• Make regular backups of your most important data. External storage media such as USB sticks or free cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive are best suited for this.
• Although you should set up a secure password for your user account on your laptop, this is not sufficient. If there is particularly sensitive data on your notebook, it would be advisable to encrypt it. TrueCrypt is recommended for Windows, Mac users access FileVault.
• Laptop locks can be a little cumbersome, but effective: they attach the notebook to a table or other surface and lock the device with a number code. Providers are, for example, Kensington or Koenig.
• The small program LocatePC represents a very special form of theft prevention. The Windows tool sends an e-mail with the current IP address to a specified e-mail address. Of course, this only works if the thief logs into your user account and connects to the Internet. If the device is cannibalized or the hard drive is otherwise completely deleted, the secret program is unfortunately useless.

Aftercare: You should do this in an emergency

• Afterwards, deactivate the automatic synchronization of cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive, as these can also be accessed without a password. This does not prevent spying out of the already existing data, but prevents access to the newly added data in the meantime.
• You should then change all important online passwords, primarily those of your email and online banking accounts. If you have saved other passwords in the browser but have forgotten them, you can have a new one sent to you.
• Report the loss of the laptop to the police as soon as possible so that you (in the event of an insurance claim) have no difficulty in getting the damage replaced.
• End active sessions of your online accounts. You can find out how to do this on Facebook, for example.

Do you need a replacement quickly and cheaply? We show you what you should consider when buying a used notebook on eBay.