<p>I was looking at the MIT security site and they had a list of recommended laptop locks.
Do you need to lock your laptop up at MIT (is theft a problem), or would locking it just look like you are paranoid?</p>
<p>I feel completely safe leaving my laptop in the public lounge on my hall, other people keep theirs locked in their rooms. Nobody is going to call you paranoid if you don’t feel comfortable leaving yours lying around, but there isn’t a major theft problem. That being said, don’t be stupid; don’t leave it lying around outside or in the library, and even in your living group it might not be completely safe. During holidays or the summer when there aren’t a lot of people on hall, I won’t leave my laptop lying around because there are less people I trust around and its more likely some random guy will walk into the lounge and then walk off with it.</p>
<p>When you say locked in the room does that mean in the room with the door locked or do they use a cable lock in addition to the locked door?</p>
<p>I really don’t want to buy a cable lock but I don’t want to be dumb either.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who uses a cable lock… I don’t think its dumb to keep a laptop behind a locked door but not cable-locked.</p>
<p>I’ve known of two thefts in the two years I’ve been around. Both happened when someone left their room unlocked on their hall, which is generally a safe place. If you lock your door when you leave your laptop in it, you should be fine. That said, if you want to get a lock, get a lock. I don’t know anyone who uses one, though, so that might give you an idea of how safe we feel :)</p>
<p>I would advocate just being smart; don’t leave your laptop lying around in places where strangers could just walk by and take it. If it’s in your locked room, it’s definitely fine; no thief is going to go through the trouble of breaking into your room and stealing a computer when there’s probably some poor fool who left their computer in an easily accessible public space. A laptop lock is probably superfluous.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies:)</p>
<p>Glad to hear a lock is not really necessary as it had never occured to me until I read the MIT security stuff.</p>