What Are the Best Laptop Theft Recovery Measures?

BarlowBrad writes "Yesterday my house was broken into and among other things two laptops were stolen. Getting past the feeling of violation, I am looking to the future and how to both prevent theft and recover computers should it happen again. I have found various services that claim to track and recover stolen laptops such as LoJack for Laptops, Computrace, GadgetTrak and Undercover, but I (obviously) have no experience with any of them. I also know that Intel will be coming out with a new anti-theft technology chip, but that isn't supposed to come out until the fourth quarter and I'll be replacing the laptops before then. Does Slashdot have a recommendation between these services or suggestions for another?" Read on for a related question about automating this process. BarlowBrad continues: "I have also wondered if there is a 'home brew' solution that I could cook up myself. I'm not an elite programmer, but I am somewhat computer savvy and open to ideas. At least one of the replacement laptops will have to be a Windows machine, but the other may be a Mac or run Linux, so ideally I'd want a solution for multiple platforms. Perhaps a script that sends an email with the IP address every time the computer connects to the internet? Or is there already something out there like that in the Open Source community?"

Comments

Re:Recovery, Not. Denial, Maybe.

[alanshot]

You would be surprised. Cops LOVE computrace. The know that generally when they go to find a laptop using this service, they will find OTHER criminal activity in the process.

One example computrace boasts is the chop shop that was inadvertantly raided thanks to a computrace recovery.

Besides, Computrace makes it easy on the cops. they get directions to the loot. No real investigative hassle on thier part.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

And then what?

[frovingslosh]

Yup, there are many ways to learn the IP address/addresses of your computer once it has been stolen. Thing is, what can you do about it then? I've read far too many reports about people who know what addresses have been used by their stolen computers, but have been unable to get ISPs and even law enforcement to get involved and track down the stolen hardware. The ISPs simply are not going to co-operate with you, and law enforcement responses can range wildly. While there may be a few exceptional individuals who will help track a stolen laptop, from what I have read one should not be at all surprised to get a less helpful response from law enforcement.

It could be a good idea to hide a little DYNDNS update routine on each of one's computers (and thankfully DYNDNS will even give you multiple IDs that you can update, so you can have a different one for each computer). But I'll want to see a lot more positive feedback by people who did this or similar things before I will think it's very likely to be helpful. Now if you had a GPS in that laptop and sent out it's coordinates when updating, you might be able to do yourself a lot more good (unfortunately, GPS doesn't work well indoors).

Best home theft deterrent?

[pongo000]

Can't help you with getting your laptops back, but I can give you a suggestion on how to force lowlife scum to pick your neighbor's house next time:

Dogs.

Not necessarily big, but loud. Most fucksticks who want your stuff don't want to deal with dogs, as there are far easier pickings right down the road. We have three. Homes have been broken into on either side of me, multiple times. I don't believe it's luck. Two border collies and a lab are simply a wrench in the works of a simple-minded shithead.

Believe me, someone wants in your house badly enough, no number of dogs, alarms, etc. will stop them. But the chances of someone wanting your stuff that badly are probably nil, and if they are willing to kill your dogs to get your stuff, they'll probably kill you too.

Dogs are the ticket. Think about it.

Better Sticker:

[Em Ellel]

"Cellular GPS LoJack Id: 81231982
  If found contact: 123-456-7890"

If you are savy enough, hack BIOS to display the same message at boot time (some BIOSes allow you to add your own images - thats one way, or add message to MBR)

Better yet, on boot print "GPS position is acquired and transmitted."

Probably won't get your laptop back, but may mess with their heads and make them wonder if they are being tracked by hardware. ;-)

-Em

Re:Recovery, Not. Denial, Maybe.

[tftp]

You also need to either make regular backups or store all of your irreplaceable data on an external device

Or? OR ???

Re:Recovery, Not. Denial, Maybe.

[Phat_Tony]

Side note: Thieves are seldom savvy. If they had any brains they would get a less risky job. So chances of them disabling any counter measures are fairly slim.

Thievery is an industry. The car thief doesn't keep the car and drive it himself, or park it in his front yard with a "for sale" sign. He sells it to a chop shop. And the chop shop guys don't even tell the thief where the chop shop is to drive it to- they tell the thief to meet them in a vacant lot somewhere, and they bring an oxy-acetylene torch and a pair of ramps with them and locate and fry a lojack and disable Onstar before they take the car.

Thieves who steal laptops don't have to be "savvy" to bypass your counter-measures, they just have to be not dumb-as-a-rock. Why? Because thieves use division of labor, like in any other line of work. The thief never turns the laptop on, they take it to the back room of the pawn shop that they know deals in stolen goods. They'll buy the laptop off the thief for "a steal" compared to it's used price on Ebay. The pawn shop guy probably won't turn it on either, he'll resell it (with a markup) to a guy he knows who's professionally in the business of stripping and cleaning stolen computers for resale. That guy'll ebay it or even resell it again to another pawn shop or another ebayer, or even sell stacks of computers in "surplus lots" to ebayers or such.

Sure, some thieves are just plain dumber than a box of hammers, and are desperate and stupid with no connections, and they'll just open your laptop and play around with it, and trip any system you've got. Some thieves who stole laptops started using the email account and email address of the previous owner out of ignorance. But most stolen laptops are stolen by thieves who know how to fence goods. You can't assume your laptop will be handled incompetently because the guy who swiped it is a moron any more than you can assume McDonalds is poorly run because some random fry jockey's shoe size is higher than his IQ.