How to Inventory Your Technology for Recovery & Claims
Categories: Best Practices Cyber Security Awareness Month Security Uncategorized
Severe weather, fires, theft, and misplaced items while traveling are already high-stress situations. You may find yourself needing to submit an insurance claim or police report for your phone, laptop, or tablet during one of these situations. You start to make your report and get asked the make, model, and serial number of your device. Would you be able to provide that information without the device right in front of you?
For work-issued technology, Agriculture IT might have the information if you worked with them on purchasing or if you requested an inventory assessment. For personal items you must build your own inventory list and store it in locations you can access during a natural disaster or when traveling. If you already have homeowners or rental insurance, you may already perform inventory assessments to ready yourself for claims, so collecting the following information for technology will be an additional step in your readiness plan.
What information should I collect?
Essential
- Make/Brand
- Model
- Serial number
More useful for recovery or claims
- Physical description
- Copy of purchase receipt or invoice
- A picture of item
- MAC address for items that are internet connected
What devices should I include?
You should include any item you use as your primary or day-to-day technology in your inventory. Anything else can be added if it’s important to you for replacement.
Example of items
- Laptop
- Tablet
- Mobile phone
- Desktop computer
- TVs and computer monitors
- Printers and scanners
- Digital and video cameras
- Home theater equipment (projectors, stereo, speakers)
- Laptop docking station
- Technology accessories like expensive headphones, graphic design drawing tablets, etc.
How do I find this information?
Manufacturer, make/model, and serial number are usually found on the outside of the device either on a sticker or directly printed on the item. Other terms used to indicate serial numbers are SN, ST, or CN. Dell items use the term “service tag” For mobile phones, laptops, desktop computers, and tablets, this information can also be found in the device’s system information.
MAC addresses for networked items are found in the network settings for tablets, laptops, desktops, and mobiles phones. It’s usually found on a sticker on the outside of the device for network capable printers.
If you need help locating the information for work-issued devices, Specialists in Agriculture IT can assist you. Using phrases like “Where do I find the serial number on an Apple laptop,” or “Where can I find the MAC address on my Android phone,” in an internet search can direct you to visual guides when building your personal inventory list.
Where do I put this information?
The more places you store this information, the better chance you have of accessing it when needed. Just like data backups, it’s recommended you store this information in 2 or 3 different locations. Ideally, you will have a collection of files: the inventory list, pictures of the items, and copies of item receipts. Examples of storage types and locations include,
- USB drive (external drive or USB “thumb” drive) in a safe location
- Cloud backup storage location
- Examples include OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, DropBox accounts
- Printed paper copies in a safe location
- Email to yourself
- Some personal email, like those through your internet provider, may have limits on how long an email will be stored before it’s automatically deleted.
If you have a safety deposit box or an additional office or residence, a USB device or the printed paper copies can be stored there or wherever you keep copies of vital documents.
Additionally, the OSU Police Department provides a “Personal Asset Inventory” service to students and employees for free. This can be accessed by going to my.okstate.edu and clicking on “Personal Asset Inventory” under “Quick Links,” or using the following link, https://apps.okstate.edu/pd_inventory/index.php.
Feel free to contact us in Agriculture IT with questions about this article or if you have other cybersecurity questions.