It happens every hour of every day to people just like you...
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"We share an office space with another small company. The office manager from the other company continues to use our computers (because, for instance, her printer is out of ink), and in the process she continually introduces viruses into our previously pristine computers. Talking about it has been of no use, so we need a way to literally lock her out of our disk drives! Maybe Datamation can help...."  (MR, office manager, medical office, California) 
We can do that. Tell us you need a disk drive lock.

"We came in on Monday morning after a long weekend and something was not quite right on my PC. I called the help desk and, after 2 hours, gave up on trying to find the problem. When I tried to run Excel, my system crashed. It happened to 15 other guys on the trading floor. It turned out somebody had taken memory chips out of the computers worth 15 grand. A $50 cable would have stopped them. Stupid." (MK, Big investment bank)

Thanks. See protecting internal components

"I was in the elevator going back to my office when I hear two of our security guards talking. One was offering to sell the other a brand new PC for $100. It was in an office on the 9th floor, he said. It was my PC! I was so scared that I got off on a different floor and, when I got back to my office, I locked my new computer in the closet." (S.J, urban teaching hospital)

Sometimes having guards is not a help. See strategies

I was working on an audit at a client location. When I came back to the conference room after lunch, my laptop was gone. I lost my files. The client paid to have me re-do three days work." (accountant, suburban office park)

The real cost of losing equipment is more than just replacing it. See real cost and notebooks

"We waited two years for a PTA grant to put a Brittanica on CD in our library. It was stolen. I don't know where we will get the money to replace it. The parents worked so hard to get us this resource." (librarian, public school)

A simple "ounce of prevention" can make this much less common See prevention

"I had been working in a computer company for more than four years. I knew the people that I worked with and I knew the security guards who were on duty 24 hours a day, seven days per week. My notebook went missing from my private office whilst I was away for only 15 minutes. On it was quotations that I had been working on for the last 3 months, private and personal info, plus company confidential info. The loss of the notebook in $'s was around $3000.00 Australian Dollars. The cost to me was probably around $30,000 in lost commission (as the quotation / tender I was working on did not make it in on time). …Info of my other customers and details of quotations may have been used to my disadvantage if this info came into the hands of my competitors (which I feel it had)." (CP, computer sales rep, Australia)

This is everyone's nightmare. See real cost

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"One of our classroom PCs booted up with the error, "No RAM." I pointed out to the instructor that the "EZ access, remove only two screws" cases made it very "EZ" for someone to remove components. He insisted that there was no way this could happen because there were so many people in the room all the time. So when he went across the room to help a student, I removed the cover from the PC next to me and removed the RAM--took less than two minutes." (CW, computer specialist, training firm, Alabama)

EZ means EZ. See See protecting internal components

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"I was doing memory upgrades in one of our training classrooms when I had discovered that four PCs had their memory chips swapped out with smaller chips. With over 500 computer systems to maintain I am finding PCs with CPUs swapped out on a daily basis." (JMH, military base in the South)

If this happens in the military, imagine less secure facilities! See protecting internal components

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"I was having coffee and a professor at my college was eating with me and all of a sudden a person ran away with his computer. Now he is using your product." (DZ, university student, Pacific Northwest)

At least you had an alibi. See making noise.

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"My wife and I returned from a two month vacation in France. We found our home had been broken into. The computer, all the peripherals (printers, scanner, etc.) and ALL the software had been stolen. I contacted the company who handled (notice the past tense!) our homeowners insurance, only to find that because the computer, equipment and software was used for business as well as personal use, it was not covered! A security device might very well have save us a bundle!" See (JM, Southern California homeowner)

It is easier to replace a stereo than a PC. See security strategies.

To request more information on how to protect your valuable equipment from theft, click here