5. Targus Defcon DL Armor Combo Cable Locks

• DEFCON SERIALIZED...
• • OfficeMax
  • $34.99
• • NextWarehouse
  • $43.16

By Barry Gerber

OK Mark, how about a little game of dueling notebook locks? The Targus Defcon line of locks is impressive. As with Kensington's MicroSaver locks, you're unlikely to lose a properly anchored notebook if a Defcon lock is in place.

Targus has built a very strong cable lock. Not only is the combination lock highly tamper proof, but the 6.5 foot cable itself is built to endure quite a bit of cutting and sawing. I'm sure a number of tireless and lucky thieves will manage to make it through the outer steel ringlets and galvanized twisted steel wire. However, it's likely to take them so long and make enough noise that most will be caught before breaking the cable.

In the photo below I've locked Eurocom's massive 14 plus pound M590K Emperor Dual SLI gaming notebook to a table in my lab. It makes good sense to lock down expensive hardware, even if it's heavy. OK, I know. What good is it to lock the notebook to a rolling table that can be disassembled in a minute? Imagine it's locked to the big shelf in the background. It would take at least five minutes to disassemble that one and there would be a lot of noise when the shelf fell on the potential thief.

Each Defcon lock comes with some washer-like spacers that assure the lock sits tightly against the notebook's case. Targus offers a number of locks under the Defcon brand name. The one discussed here is the Model #ASP10US. It is just coming to market at a retail price of $54.99, with the usual discounts. You can find a similar lock using the little box in the top right corner of this article.