[form of secret communications ??]

I'd stick with IRC (old/tested/proven) all these app's that popup out of no where and offer secure comm's by some obscure company freak me out (are they GOV funded, who actually coded it, if they just produce that one application where is the money to pay programmers/testers/etc..) of course im overly paranoid and thats just my two cents.

[Penetration Testing Laptop]

The bigger version of the R3-131 is a tad bit better R3-431 it's 14" plus I believe it comes in i5 or i7 flavors