Keeping the Laptop Safe on the Road

We've traveled all over the world with our laptop computers.  Most hotel safes are too small for a full-size laptop, and there is rarely a good way to truly secure them when you are away from your hotel room, campground, or vehicle.  A determined thief with a good set of tools or wire cutters can defeat most cable systems.  Encryption protects your data, but doesn't prevent theft.  Since the last thing I want to deal with while camping is replacing and rebuilding our computers, I decided to turn our truck into a rolling vault.  Yes, I realize that putting this on the web in a blog violates one of the primary rules of security - tell no one.  I'll have to live with the consequences and see what happens...if our stuff gets stolen, I'll be sure and let you know this was a poor choice.  If someone puts all of the clues together, tracks me to my campsite, and knows by reading this blog to bring a bolt cutter or the other tools necessary to defeat my attempt at security, then so be it.  Here is what you'll have to get through to get at my computers!

First, it does no good to stash your laptops in your truck if someone can simply steal your truck.  So, in addition to the alarm system, I snagged an Autolock Pro to hopefully dissuade or stop auto theft. 



Next, I needed a safe place to tuck our laptops while hiking and camping away from the truck.  Hotel safes work just fine, but our Marmot tent didn't come with one.  I bought the only room safe I could find that will hold multiple 17" laptops.



Next, I upgraded the traditional laptop security cable to this 3/8" thick braided steel monster from Master Lock.



To secure it in the truck, I reamed out the pre-drilled 1/4" holes up to 1/2" to fit this monster cable, and slipped the cable through the welded mounts that hold the rear fold-down seats in place.

Finally, being a huge fan of hiding in plain sight, I took the Amazon box that the products shipped in, and re-packaged the safe in the back of the truck inside a plain brown Amazon wrapper.  The result...

...looking in from outside the truck:

...looking in from the back of the truck:

...and if you open the box:

I have to admit that this blog post seems to be destined for that list of things I wish I hadn't done...why go through all of this trouble to protect your laptop, then give every car thief in the world a free look on the Internet?  Nothing to do now but hit Publish Post and see what happens.  I'll be sure and put a pin in a Google map so that we'll be easy to find, and announce in advance when and where we'll be parking our truck to go on that multi-day backpacking trip!