From: pdlamb@iquest.com (Patrick Lamb)
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 95 07:37:05 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Best encryption device driver for MS-DOS?
Message-ID: <199502091537.JAA13636@vespucci.iquest.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>> You leave your laptop turned on and out of your immediate reach? Geesh.
>> I would NEVER leave my laptop anywhere that I didn't have it in eyeshot. It
>> was the whole reason I got one.
>
>Well, it's rather tacky to turn off the laptop, unplug it, etc., just to
>lug it into a boardroom.  Not impressive.
>
>> > As you might imagine, I have a full suite of programming tools on the
laptop,
>> > including MS Office Pro and VB Pro, both of which are worth about $500
>> > apiece - I'd sure hate to lose them to a malicious cracker, or someone who
>> > would like a personal copy of my source code for their own use, or who just
>> > wants to "borrow" my secret key for awhile.
>> >
>> Business must be good, you are more worried about somebody stealing a $500
>> dollar program than a several thousand dollar laptop?
>
>Oh, I'm not worried about the laptop walking off, I'm worried about the
>software I've written walking off...
>

How about an obvious solution, like the password feature on After Dark?  If
I remember correctly, there's a hot-key combination you can use to bring up
the screen saver mode immediately as you get up from the machine.  It's
obviously not foolproof, but just blanking the screen and going into a
password mode would probably deter the casual browser.  If you're really
worried, change your autoexec so it goes into windows and starts AD immediately.

Low tech, maybe, but easy!

        Pat