<p>I always locked up my laptop in my suitcase.</p>
<p>People break into rooms, and a lock wouldn't help you too much there.</p>
<p>Those locks are great deterrents in public though. First, it goes from "grab and walk" to "cut it conspicuously" and "hope the body of the laptop isn't damaged too much".</p>
<p>I didn't know about laptop locks... And how does the fingerprint reader work? You know, stealing a laptop to me seems much like stealing a flashy card. You know it's dangerous to keep if you stole it so you take it apart for parts. >_<</p>
<p>Laptop locks aren't going to stop you from taking the parts. It will, however, prevent you from taking the entire laptop easily. It requires time to remove parts, as well as knowing how to remove them, which varies from laptop to laptop.</p>
<p>Laptop locks are great if you have to, say, run to the printer and leave your laptop for 30 seconds. If you did that without a lock, your laptop might disappear. With it? 30 seconds is hard to remove just one component, and usually thieves aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. It's a great deterrent, but not one that you should depend on for more than a couple of minutes.</p>
<p>Lojack for Laptops is decent. If the university gives each student their own IP in their dorm, it's trivial to track. It's also easy to disable if you know what you're doing, but most thieves don't even know that it is running. Absolute Software (the company that makes it) can usually get the cops to puruse the matter, which is what matters- often, police won't pursue claims by individuals. </p>
<p>Common sense, a laptop lock, and computer software can greatly reduce your chances. Of course, you can break a laptop lock (making a scene, using time, and damaging the laptop), stripping it for parts (most thieves aren't this smart), or disabling/never booting Windows and eliminating Lojack (most theieves want the Windows install and don't realize it's running).</p>
<p>Fingerprint readers are a great novelty, but not that secure. The large "entire finger at once" ones can often be reactivated by breathing (the oil heats up and reactivates). This is easy. You can also use gummy bears or photocopies (these require more effort and know how, most theieves don't know this). The swipe ones can't be fooled by breathing, but they can be fooled by the other two tricks. </p>
<p>I'm not just pulling this out of my ass either.</p>
<p>Gummi</a> Bears Can Also Fool Fingerprint Scanners
Play-Doh</a> fingers can fool 90% of scanners, sez Clarkson U. study
Digital</a> fingerprint door lock defeated by photocopied 'print'
Fooling</a> A Fingerprint Scanner</p>
<p>Laptop style scanners are better, but still foolable by gel-like (gummy bears and ballistic gel) materials.</p>
<p>They're way to easy to fool. They're decent to supplement (not in place of) a password.</p>
<p>All of this is good advice. You can also get lojack for laptops. This is the system that locates stolen cars. You have to buy it and register it, so it's a cost, but apparently they can locate the laptop if it's been stolen. FYI.</p>