Most security suites quite reasonably concentrate on protecting you from online threats: viruses, spyware, hackers, spam and so on.

None of this will help you if your PC or laptop is stolen, though, so it’s good to see McAfee’s latest beta, their all-in-one security suite, Total Protection 5.0, will take account of this by bundling the company’s Anti-Theft File Protection.

The feature isn’t quite as exciting as it sounds. If your laptop is stolen then it won’t “phone home” to report its location, or provide webcam shots of the thief.

Anti-Theft does provide worthwhile and easy-to-use encryption, though, securing your most important documents in 256-bit AES-encrypted “vaults”. They show up as additional drives in Explorer, so it’s simple to save files there, but only someone who knows the password will be able to access them later.

Elsewhere, Total Protection now provides access to a new CleanBoot tool, and a virus removal service, which should help you clean up even the most stubborn of malware.

The Parental Controls module is now better at restricting the amount of time your kids can spend online.

There are the usual incremental improvements across the package: faster installation time, improved on-demand scanning performance, better protection against keyloggers, and more.

And of course there are all the other features you’d expect in any security suite: antivirus and antispyware, a spam filter, phishing protection, PC cleanup tools, and more.

This is the first beta of Total Protection 5.0, so will contain all kinds of bugs, and you install it very much at your own risk. If you’d like to take a look, though, it’s available now, and you can sign up for your copy at the McAfee Beta site.