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Mac Theft Recovery Software Tracks Thieves
Dubpal writes "Apple Macintosh users can now fit their machines with theft protection software that reports back on what a thief is doing with their computer, should it ever be stolen. The software, named "Undercover" allows users to report their Macs as stolen, causing the software to report back with IPs, screenshots and even a picture of the thief and his surroundings. In addition to this, Undercover begins faking hardware faults, displaying messages and even reading them aloud, alerting anyone around that the Mac's been stolen."
In other words, this piece of software is useful only to:Oh, and anyone tempted to quote the following from the faq at me:1) Bypassing the firmware is also trivial on Apple machines - all you have to do is add some Ram, and boot
2) Noone has a firmware bios password.
Oh, and last thing - again from the FAQBullshit. If they could do that, they would be selling that, not their little toy spyware app.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I have issues with this, in that if the webcam is hardwired to the machine, and can be accessed remotely without the users knowledge - what stops a hacker spying on you for less legitimate reasons?
Like the schokwave debacle? I would have preferred Apple to have included a physical shutter to close the webcam when not in use rather than chance the unsightly aspects of my private life being shown to the masses. It's a little too orwellian for me.
http://skeptobot.blogspot.com/ - A site for the Renaissance man and woman
"This computer has been stolen...and is looking at horse porn..."
-tgpo
http://www.tgpo.info/
If te thief decides to not use the net with the laptop, youre chances of getting it back are zero. So there goes the money you spent on both the laptop and the software. I wonder if the money back guarantee takes that into account?
It is quite common to post ones little thoughts around a subject without reading TFA, and that is, if not OK then at least human. But when your ambition is to reveal supposedly fatal flaws with a product, you really should check your facts about what it claims to do, or at the very least re-read the abstact to make sure you at least understood that correctly.
Hint: it doesn't discover it is stolen, you (the owner) report it as such to the company.
sudo ergo sum
What happens if a would-be thief reports your PC as stolen so he can find out when to steal your car :)?
In other news new obvious headline generator software spits out headlines stating the obvious.
Sorry, but I really don't understand your post. I know you're trying to say something, but I just don't get what it is.
Did you try re-reading before posting?
What does Apple have to do with this?
Sig Nature
If we can not recover your stolen Mac, we will fully refund Undercover
Sweet! So if my laptop gets stolen and they can't find it, I get 30 bucks back! How can you possibly go wrong?
This guy's the limit!
Just put a daily event in iCal with an alarm that sends an e-mail to yourself. Unless the thieves reinstall the OS (doubtful as I'd bet that most theives just want quick cash for their swag), the machine will send out an email to you everyday from its new location.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
-Kurt
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
You've just realised that you didn't RTFA, right?
reading them aloud, alerting anyone around that the Mac's been stolen
Sounds like a guaranteed way to get your stolen mac smashed into unuseable pieces.
Thanks to reading slashdot and digg regularly, I now know how to steal a laptop and get away with it.
1. Remove Kensington Laptop Lock.
2. Add / Remove Ram if firmware pw is set.
3. Boot from removable install media.
4. Format Hard Drive (after you go through it and keep the good bits, music pron etc)
5. Reinstall OS
I rememmber about a year back I had a sales rep trying to sell me the same thing for a pc, I asked him if people could get around it by just reformating the drive, His answer was the the program would be still be installed. So i then asked him what would happen if someone just replaced the harddrive and he said it would still report back to its server. Then I asked him how does a program that only work on 2000/xp connect to a remote server on the internet somewhere if there is no internet connection and no operating system installed, He said "its a new patented technology". So I asked him where does program that needs 2000/xp and 20MB+ of harddrive space install its self if it not to the harddrive. At this point he couldn't speak english and got disconnected.
It seems people will buy anything these days. I should get into selling downloadable invisable goodluck charms for you computer.
[sVen]
You've just realised that you didn't RTFA, right?
No, now I did.
I've been always amazed how quickly registered users drop to AC's if they doubt it'll be good for their karma though.
This sure is a nice program and I'm tempted to buy it, but only because it can help the police track down the criminal who stole my computer. But I would not want my computer back. Who knows where it's been, and how roughly it has been treated? I can't imagine that thieves treat computers with the care they need.
My iBook was stolen recently, and although that is a PITA, I have backups so no data was lost. And with the money I got from the insurance company I can buy a new MacBook now!
-- Cheers!
Television station buys a dozen laptops. Leaves them unprotected in various spots with clearly marked names and addresses. Nabs would-be thieves and shames them on TV.
Sending you screenshots of the laptop being used is very useful, most security software "phones home" but only gives limited information, like the IP address of the machine (public IP if it is NATed).
The stolen laptops that law enforcement have contacted me about, have been largely pointless (as I work for an ISP and have access to the customer records). The perpetraitor or possesor of stolen goods is almost always at a hotel (wifi hotspot - what have you). Under US law - John Doe search warrant of a hotel isn't good enough.
You can't wake everyone in a hotel up and search thier rooms, the police need a specific name and room number, they can only search one room.
So thus screen shots, and knowing the identity of the person who's using their stolen laptop, improves your chances of recovery immensely.
___________________________
I'm not a geek, but I play one on TV.
This is really a bit convoluted as an anti-theft measure, although it does look interesting. By far the best way to avoid having your laptop stolen is not to leave it unattended, not to use it anywhere you wouldn't wave $1000 in cash above your head and not to keep it in anything that resembles a laptop bag - use a ratty old satchel or a diaper bag. Muggers are just about the bottom of the criminal food chain, it doesn't take a lot to outsmart them. Just like net security, you just need to be a slightly more difficult target than the next guy and that next guy is talking on his cellphone while walking through a car park at 11pm with a swanky leather 'dell' bag on his shoulder.
I administer a network of over 8000 computers, half of which are Apple computers. We use a program from http://www.absolute.com/ called Computrace (Win/Mac) and it writes a piece to the BIOS that calls home REGARDLESS of OS reinstall. If removed, it will reinstall the software to call back home. Can it be stopped? Yes, but only with packet captures and other assorted goodies. Works really slick and it has been tested.
The Soviet Russia joke about the screen watching you would be too easy.. (I believe it was the "orginal" soviet russia joke by Yakov Smirnov). How about a 1984 reference?
[O'Brian] - do we have the incriminating pictures of Smith yet? [Faceless Functionary] - umm.. no sir, there seems to be something blocking the camera. Our systems seems to have been defeated. [O'Brian]- What? We've spent millions developing this technology! There is nothing wrong with our system.
Just call me Captain Nemo, then. (And it's not "BIOS" on a Mac; for anything even remotely recent, it's either "Open Firmware" or "EFI", depending on model.) "Only the seriously paranoid have a firmware/BIOS password," I will certainly grant.
I'll also note that a firmware bios password can also be bypassed by removing the hard drive and connecting to a new machine via any of the usual methods... at which point, removing Undercover becomes much simpler. And if there isn't a BIOS password to begin with, Undercover's also trivial to remove with target-mode booting and another Mac.
Still, it's one more nuisance to drop on a thief.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Could you go to the authorities and say "OK, my Mac was stolen by this person", explain to them the situation, and would they actually be able to go after the person? And another thing. If I were to steal a MacBook (which however temping with my itty bitty iBook may be I wouldn't), the first thing I'd do if it started announcing to the world I'm a thief would be smash it into bitty bitty pieces and then let those pieces swim with the fish.......
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
a software solution to track stolen computers is, IMHO, a very unreliable method. software can easily be broken, in today's scenario. a better method would be to sprinkle micro-scopic uniquely identifiable "dots" (with RFID) in/on the computer spares/parts. a central agency can keep track of lost/stolen hardware ID's and flag them whenever they're detected.
I'm certain I saw this on slashdot awhile ago, but I have my Mac run a scripts each hour. It leaves a bit of text in the logs on my website. If it's ever stolen, at least it provides a slightly higher chance of recovery, and it doesn't cost a thing. Entry in /etc/crontab:
1 * * * * root curl H T T P://your.website.com/bogusPageStolen.html &>/dev/null
Everyone always talks about how there are cheap laptops in pawn shops, but have you ever went there looking for one? I know I saw nothing worthwhile.
This kind of software has been around for awhile. Have a look at https://www.pcphonehome.com/ It also relies on the firmware password Michael