Statebook: how UK government spooks see the Internet – Boing Boing:

“Statebook: A Place to Access Your Citizens’ Information”

Not quite Kosher but a scary indication of just how much personal information our lords and masters would like to have on tap. And on a laptop coming to a bus / tube seat near you.

And time for a timely reminder to keep any sensitive information you may have on your computer encrypted.
Passwords and login names for your online banking can be kept encrypted in applications like Yojimbo, or Together on a Mac. Or even in the Keychain. Windows users probably have similar options available.

This is very important if like me you use laptops as your primary desktop computers and cart them round the country.

Make sure you keep frequent up to date backups too. Time Machine is ideal and simple for this and included in OS X. Alternatives include Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. Again Windows users will have similar options available.

Backup to an external hard drive or better still to 2 external hard drives in rotation.