In any local coffee house, airport lounge or hotel lobby, technophiles and technophobes can be found hunched over their notebook computers. Toting around a computer filled with valuable data, however, is a growing risk: If the computer is lost or stolen, the user loses everything — from a prized doctoral thesis to bank account numbers to records of passwords. When the thrill of being unplugged outweighs the danger of losing essential data, a number of technologies can make it easier to back up those files, keep them hidden and even track down the missing computer itself. It starts with that techno-mantra: back-up, back-up, back-up. “You need to have that critical data stored somewhere else,” said IDC research director Charles Kolodgy. While everyone knows about the old stand-bys for back-ups, such as using CDRs or a Zip drive to store your information, or even e-mailing a file to yourself, new technology makes backing up even easier. Full Story