Be anonymous:

If you take a laptop home to work on, carry it in an anonymous bag to avoid alerting thieves to its contents.

1) Make external ICT technicians present ID

2) Ensure that all visitors sign in and out and arrange for someone to accompany them around the building.

Hide your trolley:

1) Keep laptop trolleys away from the windows and never leave their keys lying around.

2) Invest in a secure docking station to lock your laptop trolley to a wall overnight

Lock it down:

If your school is located in an area with a high crime rate, or when pupils are working in open-plan areas, security cables and lock downs can prevent equipment from being taken whilst it is in use.

Tips for preventing ICT theft

Use a secure locker:

If students issue themselves with laptops, you could invest in a charging locker that enables pupils to access devices via smartcards which enables you to track and monitor individual laptops whereabouts. Or if damaged or lost, who was accountable for using it last.

Tag your assets

Apply asset tags or security coding to each laptop and keep asset register up to date. If your equipment is stolen, these markings will identify the devices to your school, deterring thieves from stealing equipment as they will not be able to sell it on without being detected.

Choose a secure laptop trolley:

Laptops and tablets can be protected in a secured, lockable cabinet that can be bolted to the wall. This cabinet should be constructed of reinforced steel, not wood or plastic, and be designed to resist crowbars, cutting equipment and lock-pickers.

Be aware: Should your premises be broken into, the chance of a repeat o�ence increases dramatically. If you have been a victim of laptop theft, change where you store your laptops as criminals could break in again, knowing just where to look.

Always encrypt:

Always install encryption software onto your mobile ICT devices. Encryption can protect students by scrambling data to make it di�cult for thieves to determine its meaning, often rendering stolen data useless.

More than encryption:

Encryption should not be relied upon alone. Laptops data that they contain exceeds the laptop resell value.

Use an alarm:

It is a good idea to select a laptop trolley with a motion sensor alarm to further deter thieves.