Vista - laptop was stolen, how easy is it to get pass the password screen

So my laptop was stolen at the airport, and I'm sure there is no way I can
get it back....but how easy will it be for them to try to get pass the
password protection I had on it?

"ragazzasporca" <ragazzasporca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:902F1F06-3565-4121-B0C0-0FF82CC2C460@xxxxxxThe answer is, that depends on which password it was. Laptops can offer
several passwords, one so that you can't restart the system - this BIOS
password often requires sending the laptop to an authorized service depot to
clear.

If you have just the XP or Vista password on the account, sorry, but these
can be cleared pretty easily.

If the system can't start due to the BIOS password, the drive can be removed
and the data simply removed... unless the data was encrypted, and that's a
feature only on a couple of versions of Vista.

However, if the passwords are cleared outside the account, encrypted data
is almost certainly permanently lost to the person holding the laptop.

So, the news may not be good, but the specific answer really depends on what
passwords you had where, and whether encryption was available and invoked.

HTH
-pk

If they have even the slightest clue and know how to use a search engine,
extremely easy.

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"ragazzasporca" <ragazzasporca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:902F1F06-3565-4121-B0C0-0FF82CC2C460@xxxxxx

To add, if you have a BIOS level password on it it's a bit more difficult,
on some laptops almost impossible.

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"ragazzasporca" <ragazzasporca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:902F1F06-3565-4121-B0C0-0FF82CC2C460@xxxxxx

On Tue, 27 May 2008 13:41:24 -0700, ragazzasporca wrote:
I'm not sure about vista, but I know there was a Linux utility which could
easily reset the password from a Live CD - at any rate, it's trivial to
get the data.

"ragazzasporca" <ragazzasporca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:902F1F06-3565-4121-B0C0-0FF82CC2C460@xxxxxxIf your hard drive was not encrypted it will probably be fairly easy to
access it.

C.B.


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It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged
and unfortunate among us.

On May 27, 10:41*am, ragazzasporca
<ragazzaspo...@xxxxxx> wrote:Well you can't do anything about that laptop now but definitely on
your next one install some whole drive encryption. There are several
flavors around, but one of the best is TrueCrypt. It's open source
and free to use. It's available at http://www.truecrypt.org. As an
added bonus some testing has shown that using TrueCrypt full drive
encryption (which will protect your data, no matter what a thief does
with your laptop) actually speeds up your drive. I know it sounds
crazy, but it seems like the driver that TrueCrypt uses to encrypt/
decrypt sectors on-the-fly is more efficient that the native driver...
by quite a bit! Steve Gibson has some excellent research on it at
GRC.com.

I use it on all my laptops now. Hope this helps in the future.

No way in the hell they are going to crack it if the login password is set.... cracking the passphrase is all in the hollywood stories.

On Wed, 28 May 2008 18:36:40 -0500, ferrisits
<guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:
It's obvious that I won't miss any of your advice in the future.

"ferrisits" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:170830e59afe1416e1ea5719e37c059c@xxxxxx-gateway.com...There are several simple ways to overcome a login password but I'm
certainly not going to explain them here. Most people already know how to do
it anyway.
You need to do some research on the subject for your own good. I say
this only to help you, not criticize you.

C.B.