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Proposed MAC Sniffing Dongle Intended To Help Recover Stolen Electronics

Posted by timothy on from the you-want-the-whole-fingerprint dept.

An anonymous reader writes to say that an Iowa City police officer is developing a new concept to help police find more stolen property. The Gazette has a short report that officer David Schwindt, inspired by a forensics class, is working on L8NT, a specialized wireless dongle to help police officers locate stolen electronics (any of them with wireless capabilities and a MAC address, at least) by scanning for MAC addresses associated with stolen goods. The idea is to have police scan as they drive for these MAC entries, and match them against a database. The article notes a few shortcomings in this concept, but does not point out an even bigger one: MAC addresses are usually mutable, anyhow, in a way that's not as obvious as an obscured serial number, and thieves could refine their business model by automating the change.

5 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Should work fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course you can change a MAC address. However, your average 90 IQ bag snatcher can't do that. As with much policing, this is aimed at the low hanging criminal fruit - which is OK, because I imagine petty crime is the majority of crime.

    If some master hacker wants to steal your laptop and hide it, they could - however they could just buy their own seeing as how anyone with the skills likely can just get a decent job that is more rewarding that pinching electronics.

    1. Re:Should work fine by rhazz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It won't work for exactly the same reason. Your average laptop owner doesn't know their device's MAC address. Even if they knew how to get it, they probably don't have it written down. The article also indicates they are not after bag-snatching types. This would be more likely to be used if there was a home burglary where a device happened to be taken among other things.

    2. Re:Should work fine by Gr8Apes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Let's take this a step further - Apple added MAC address randomization to ios 8. Android can't be far behind, so what, exactly, is this going to do other than result in more home invasions on known false pretenses?

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  2. The problem is actual recovery by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've used find-my-phone type things a few times... the police don't care even if you can literally give them the thief's address. Every time it has been up to me and/or friends to enforce property rights, not the police.

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
    1. Re:The problem is actual recovery by FranTaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting

      When it happened to me I told the thief's landlord. He retrieved my stuff for me and threw her out in the street.