Identity theft used to involve someone rifling through your garbage. But now more than half a million laptops—full of tax returns and love letters—are stolen every year, estimates computer insurer Safeware. And even if your computer never leaves your sight, hackers can weasel into it over the Internet. Here are three technologies that will safeguard your digital data, whether it's on an office desktop or a stolen laptop.
Move bank statements and other vital info off your PC and beyond hackers' reach. Instead, store it on the Personal Pocket Safe, a one-gigabyte USB key fob protected by military-grade encryption. Files are indecipherable until you enter a three- to 10-digit PIN, which could take 10 years of button-pressing to guess. Hackers won’t find your files after you unplug, either, since the key holds its own data-viewing program and saves nothing to the PC. It will, however, save files to a secure online back-up service, so you can retrieve them if the key is lost or stolen.
Black Box Innovations Personal Pocket Safe
$45; takeanyware.com
Soon: Fall 2008
Keep Out Burglars

Later: 2011
Let In The Right People

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Thanks the author, very useful information. my pc's internet connection is very slow, which always drive me crazy, I want a program to solve my slow computer, several days ago my friend recommend me a software tuneup360, now I'm waiting for the result.