What happens if laptop stolen?

Local\BuddyBackup"). In order to make BuddyBackup tell all your buddies to remove your backups, the attacker  therefore needs access to that file. By default, files in your user directory are not accessible to other people. So, if your Windows is protected with a decent password (and it really should be), then it makes it harder, though not impossible for the attacker to remove your backups, because Windows won't usually let him read that file.

However, this current system won't stop a determined attacker who knows what they're doing. Just for everyone's sanity I'm not going to explain exactly how they might go about doing this, but it is possible.

So, to summarise, if you have a good Windows password then it's hard for a casual attacker to do this, though by no means impossible.

If you're running Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise, there is a workaround, however, that can make this very secure. The workaround basically uses Windows' built in Encryption File System:

1. Press Windows+R   (as in the Windows "Start" key on your keyboard at the same time as the "r" key)
2. Type in:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data
Vista/7: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local

3. Press enter
4. Right click on the "BuddyBackup" folder and choose "Properties"
5. Click "Advanced"
6. Click "Encrypt contents to secure data"
7. Click "OK"
8. Click "Apply Changes to this Folder Only" (IMPORTANT)
9. Click "OK".

Step 8 is important as encrypting files slows some things down, and you only really want to encrypt the data files. This solution, again, requires that your account be locked with a decent password.

For other users, the options are a bit more limited. You could use a hard drive encryption system such as TrueCrypt (open source) or BitLocker (Windows, though again only some versions of Windows 7). Actually this is a good idea anyway - I mean if you're laptop is stolen and it has credit card details, passwords and personal information on it, then losing your BuddyBackup details is probably the least of your worries!

We could try and improve this actually in BuddyBackup. For example, a simple solution would be to simply ask the user for his password at startup and not save it in the user file! We've always avoided this because it seemed like it would be a pain to have to re-enter every time you login. There are also some things that Windows provides us to encrypt data against your user password, which is probably the way to do this. I'll make sure we look into it.

Anyway, great question and thanks for using BuddyBackup.

John