The Laptop Security Handbook
A laptop theft costs more than the laptop. This free handbook shows how to stop the easy theft, keep your data locked if it happens anyway, and be back at work the next day.
It is plain language from start to finish, with worksheets and checklists you can use today. No sign-up needed to download.
Free. PDF for print and desktop (145 pages, 6 x 9 in). EPUB for e-readers and phones.
Also on Internet Archive.
What's inside
- What you are protecting, and where to start if you only have 15 minutes
- Stopping the easy theft: habits for cafes, offices, trains and cars
- Locks and anchors: slot types, what fits, and what to lock to
- Encryption and power states: what sleep, hibernate and shut down mean for your data
- Firmware, boot and tamper checks
- Screen, sign-in and account protection
- Backups and account recovery that work without the missing laptop
- Finding, tracking and marking a laptop, and the limits of tracking tags
- Tripwires: canary tokens and decoy files
- Out and about, and travel: bags, hotel rooms and border checks
- When it goes wrong: the first hour after a theft, police reports and insurance
- Habits, three ready-made setups, worksheets, example products (as of 2026), a glossary and sources
Prefer to read online? The laptop security guide covers the same ground in one page.
Licence
© 2026 TechCortado. All rights reserved. You may share the book free of charge in its complete, unmodified form. Please don't modify it, excerpt it, resell it or reuse its text, images or design without written permission. Third-party photos stay under their own licences, listed in the Image credits at the back of the book.
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