Lock It Down

PC Lock is the latest software from Laplink. What is does is simple, though it does it in a sophisticated under the hood and mostly out of sight sort of way. PC Lock encrypts the data on your computer to prevent unauthorized access. A few key features: It utilizes military grade 256 bit encryption, it will not interfere with your existing security software, Easy installation and easy to use, it’s pretty much invisible with no performance hit and it will automatically encrypt your files, and the cloud protection is pretty sweet. With the cloud protection you can remotely administer your data. Log in to the web based management and you can choose which files are encrypted or delete your data. One feature I like is how it can prevent data access even if your computer or hard drive is stolen. PC Lock is available as a subscription services, meaning your pay for it every year just as you do for your anti virus/ internet security software.

Now that you have an idea of what it can do, how does it actually work and perform in the real world? First the install process is pretty straight forward. Just follow the on screen instruction and it will be installed after two reboots. On the third reboot and subsequent booting of windows, you will need to provide your password to gain access to your file. failure to do so and you get an ‘Access is Denied’ error when opening your files. I had this installed and up and running in no time at all. And with it running I am seeing no loss in performance. That is critical for me as I do time sensitive video and audio editing from time to time. Some common sense tips for the install. Login to Windows as an administrator, close other applications, and make sure you are connected to the internet. It is also a good time to backup your data.

Once your installation completes, you’ll want to log in to the Web Management Console.  This is the place to administer your computers and encrypted files. First let’s take a looks at the Security Settings.
Here you can report your computer as lost or stolen. Which gives you two options, one is to disable access to your encrypted files and option is to delete those encrypted files. In essence if you don’t have your computer and you don’t want anyone to access your files, you can stop them from doing so. A few other settings allow you to choose how many invalid login attempts before warning the user, how many invalid attempts before disabling access to encrypted files and how many days of your computer being offline should it take before it disables access to those encrypted files. This is also the place to change the password on your computers.

File selection settings. Here we can choose which files should be encrypted. On the right is a list of file types that you show you whether they  encrypted or not. On the left, is where we can add file types or remove them. We can also choose to encrypt e-mail files which are not encrypted by default. And finally, you can choose to exclude entire directories.

Using the Web Management Console has been easy and straightforward. It was also rather quick, though your internet connection may affect the speed. In my testing, I was unable to access any of my files without logging into the computer with my PC Lock password. So for those who need or want that extra level of protection, PC Lock is a great choice. The only thing I would change would be to integrate the PC Lock login password to your Windows login screen. But in having it as two different passwords, your actually better off. So play safe online and remember run an internet security program and then for added security against Identity Theft, PC Lock is a great new solution.