LOCTOTE
FLAKSACK
SPORT
It’s difficult to
provide physical
protection for
individual small
items, as you can
easily do with a
laptop. However, the
LocTote FlakSack
Sport (http://loctote.com, £75) keeps
several small pieces of equipment secure.
It takes the form of a slash-resistant bag
with a nylon and steel locking strap and
combination lock with which you can attach
it to an immovable object.LOCK
ALARM
MINI
The Lock Alarm Mini
(www.lockalarm.
com, £25) offers
both physical
protection and an
alarm. The physical
protection is
provided by a strong
steel cable to secure
your laptop or other
kit. This is difficult to cut with hand tools
and, if a thief does try to cut through it, an
alarm will sound.SMARTWATER
SmartWater provides the benefits
of both visible and invisible
marking. Warning labels act as a deterrent,
while the invisible paint is very difficult to
remove and the smallest trace is enough
to identify you as the owner. You can mark
up to 50 items for £35 from https://shop.
smartwater.com.Feature
Protect your tech
potentially removable with a solvent if
the thief discovers the marking. Where
things get more interesting is when we
consider those products such as
SmartWater, which is an invisible ink,
prepared with a formulation unique to
each customer, that you apply to the
equipment and is almost impossible to
remove completely. It can be detected
with an ultraviolet light, leading the
police to forward recovered equipment
to SmartWater for analysis to reveal the
registered owner.
It’s provided with warning labels that
you can attach to marked equipment,
thereby providing that all-important
deterrent value. SmartWater is sold in
the UK; prices range from £25-35 for
products in the Home Security range
and these can be purchased from
https://shop.smartwater.com. In the
US, up to ten items can be protected for
as little as $5 per month – see https://
shop.smartwatercsi.com.BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES
Physical protection, alarms and marking
products are important anti-theft
measures and should be seriously
considered by anyone who regularly
takes valuable equipment outside the
home or office. However, your
behaviour is also important and changes
here could prove to be equally as
effective in preventing loss.
Our first piece of advice is to not
advertise the fact that you’re carrying
valuable equipment when you’re not
using it. When you’re walking down the
street, keep small items such as phones
in your pocket or handbag rather than
in your hand, where they can be easily
seen and could readily be snatched
from your grasp. Needless to say, this
isn’t feasible with larger items such as
tablets and laptops. However, it’s not
necessary to carry them in a
conventional laptop case, which does
little to disguise the expensive
equipment it contains. A police CrimePrevention Officer we spoke to said that
he always carries his laptop in a scruffy
supermarket bag because nobody would
guess it contained anything more
valuable than a few cans of beans.
If you want something a bit smarter,
or that provides more protection from
knocks, you could consider a backpack.your address or a unique serial number,
that are supplied with an applicator and
special ink. The ink etches into the
surface of your laptop or other
equipment, thereby making its removal
almost impossible. The other main type
involves specially prepared tamper-
resistant labels, again showing your
address or an ID, which are supplied
with an adhesive for attaching them to
your equipment. Again, removal is
difficult and, at best, will leave tell-tale
signs. When a serial number is used as
opposed to an address, this product is
sold with registration to a database –
accessible by the police – that associates
the owner with the equipment. The
advantage this offers is that equipment
can be re-registered if you sell it.
Retainagroup (www.retainagroup.
com) offers this type of product in the
UK, and STOP (www.stoptheft.com)
offers it in the US.
At first sight, the second category of
products – those that mark your
products invisibly – seems a strange
concept. Some companies sell invisible
ink pens that you’d use to write your
postcode or ZIP code on your
equipment, which becomes visible if
you shine an ultraviolet light on it. We
don’t recommend this solution since it
offers no deterrent value and is also
Anti-theft device types
to consider
PRODUCTS
Top: SmartWater is almost impossible to remove
and uniquely identifies the owner Above: Tags
from Tile use Bluetooth to help you track down
missing devices
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2
3
STENCILS, PREPARED WITH EITHER YOUR ADDRESS
OR A UNIQUE SERIAL NUMBER, ARE SUPPLIED WITH
AN APPLICATOR AND SPECIAL INK