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I was shocked to read that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has permission from the courts to look at the contents of your notebook -- without probable cause. You can read about this shocker in Court Approves Airport Laptop Searches--No Probable Cause Needed.

One of the comments at the end of the story came from goldhilldave: "TrueCrypt -- Need I say more?"

The guy's on target. You can download the free, open-source tool here (FYI: 67,000 PC World readers have already downloaded it.) The program encrypts and hides data.

Smart Notebook Security
While you're here, I thought you'd be interested in seeing what other techniques are available for you to secure your PC.

Stop Thieves From Stealing Your Laptop is a slide show of eight ways to defeat laptop thieves.

PC Worldvideo: How to Secure Your Laptop From Theft (Turn down your volume first.)

Drastic, but effective: Laptop Wipes Own Hard Drive to Beat Thieves

Coincidentally, the National Security Agency recently qualified Seagate's self-encrypting
Momentus 5400 notebook hard drive for U.S. government agencies and contractors. (Details here.)

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