Combat local crime: an encrypted hard drive ensures your data is protected from prying eyes and theft.(HERE'S HOW: SECURITY)

Whether it's the result of bitter experience, or scare stories in the press, most of us have finally latched on to the fact that we can't afford to be too laissez-faire with our personal information. And we generally know better than to go publicising it all over the Web by logging on to online accounts from a shared PC.

But what's yet to be fully hammered home is that if we store sensitive data on a local hard drive, it's equally vulnerable. Use autologins and what's to stop anyone else signing in while you're away? Leave juicy information onscreen and someone could easily make a mental note of the details as they pass by. On shared PCs, the threat of local data theft is far higher than any Web-borne attack.

Thankfully, there are some effective tools with which to secure your system. TrueCrypt, which we've used in this workshop, allows …