Permanently disable an account on repeated failed logins (stolen laptop)

Question

How?
Until now I carried a limited set of documents on my laptop, so I never really worried about security breaches. Not anymore.
I would like a feature somewhat similar to what is commonly found on cellphones or smart credit cards, i.e. after x failed attempts to properly verify identify, the device is disabled.
Is there a feature I have overlooked, or a third party application that could do something like that?

Answer 1

nerowolfe wrote:
According to Pogue, using AES-128 encryption, a single password-guessing computer would take 149 trillion years. This was in 2007. Nobody would use a password-guessing computer. That's just a simply way to calculate the time. There are cleverer ways which are faster.
not much faster and that only theoretically.
I recall that it was considered impossible to crack WEP64 and later WEP128 when they first came out. But smarter algorithms, faster and linked computers made that of none effect in a few years.
the growth of computational power is limited by physics and will never be enough to break AES. of course one can never discount that a clever mathematical algorithm will be found that will reduce the complexity tremendously. but given the nature of the algorithm used by AES this is extremely unlikely. All in all I would consider it absolutely secure in our lifetime.
personally I would never worry about anybody on earth being able to break into any encrypted disk images I make.
I said, "eventually" and that's because I respect the past and learn from it. What was 149 trillion years in 2007 may be a year by 2012. With quantum computing on the horizon, who knows?
whatever else can happen quantum computing isn't coming that soon if at all.
If the password is one that people typically use, it might take a very short time.
that's the only viable way to crack a password. that's why it's important to use strong password and nothing that can be easily guessed or brute forced.
My only point is that eventually anything can be cracked. If it were a government computer containing highly secret material, I think it would be cracked very quickly. Many cases of just such compromises are known. Our national systems have been hacked. I presume they use a very secure algorithm, but some folks have still gotten into them.
I keep nothing on my computers that would be of use to anyone, or that I could not quickly take care of. The best security is not to let the computer get stolen.
Perhaps a computer with a self-destruct mechanism would be something to consider. I don't mean an erasure, I mean a small detonated charge.