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Which Lost/Stolen Laptop Trackers Do You Like?

Posted by Zonk on Tue Sep 18, 2007 03:41 PM
from the come-back-vorpal dept.
Portables Security Hardware
saudadelinux writes "I was held up at gunpoint in July, and my laptop was stolen. There are companies out there which, for a fee, install tracker software on your laptop. If it's stolen or lost, they track its whereabouts whenever it gets on the 'Net and work with local law enforcement and ISPs to find the machine. I'm wondering: has anyone used one of these services? Does anyone have a recommendation for which company to go with? My new laptop is a a dual-boot Ubuntu/XP machine, and the couple of companies I've looked at do Windows-only. Are there Linux options?"
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Firehose:Which Lost/Stolen Laptop Trackers Do You Like? by saudadelinux (574392)
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Which Lost/Stolen Laptop Trackers Do You Like? 25 Comments More /

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  • A pack of semtex in your laptop.... If you fail to write the correct password after three times, it explodes...

    I'm kidding... If those programs can track muggers, they can also track you and that's why I wouldn't trust them. The best way to handle this is to encrypt all your data and insure your laptop against theft. Oh, and daily backups of your data on trusted media which you lock away in a safe.

    Essentially, only your data is worth something. The hardware can be covered by insurance.

  • Active Countermeasures (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:44PM (#20658273)
    I use a built in grenade on a timer you must reset every 24 hours.

    I did forget to reset it once with tragic consequences. I really miss that dog.

    Oh well, its the price you have to pay for security.

  • Don't bother. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bartab (233395) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:45PM (#20658297)
    First thing that happens is the laptop gets wiped.

    • Re:Don't bother. (Score:5, Funny)

      by MitchInOmaha (1053116) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:47PM (#20658377) Homepage
      Only if they're reasonably smart. We had a thief call Dell Support after he could not get logged in. Duh. -- Mitch

    • Re:Don't bother. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by A non-mouse Coward (1103675) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:59PM (#20658655)

      First thing that happens is the laptop gets wiped.
      Exactly. There are only two motivations for theft of a laptop:

      1) The hardware. In which case, the data will likely be destroyed immediately. There is no guarantee the machine will be booted with your hoodwinked "locator" software in tow.

      2) The data. In which case, the drive will be imaged or some other "offline" method will suck up the data without booting the OS's controls.

      The reason why remote wipe/kill functions work on a small device like a blackberry is because the service provider's network is required for the device to be usable. And even then, there's still the option that the theft is hardware-only motivated, and the thing will get wiped anyway. The blackberry wipe wasn't ever really intended on being used for a physical recovery method.

      Potentially, a system BIOS would be a good place to run a "phone home" program, except that it would require advanced components, like a TCP/IP stack, etc., to run properly, and it could still be easily wiped by replacing the firmware with boot media. Apple, for that matter, has an upper hand at such a tool since they "own" both the hardware and software. But either way, what you're attempting to do is no more possible than DRM (and Slashdotters know that DRM is nothing short of an attempt at perpetual motion).

      So lesson #1 is protect your data and insure your hardware. And please remember, that "protect your data" really could mean not having a copy of your data on the laptop at all. After all, encrypted data in the hands of an adversary is still your data, just with a time-sensitive lock on it (the length of time needed for CPU power to increase where access is trivial, or the length of time a well-resourced adversary will need to destroy today's top crypto).
        • > I'm willing to bet a free program could be almost as useful, with maybe a bit more work if the thing is stolen.

          No it couldn't. The software is trivial. A program that sends a web request with the serial number embedded in the url a few seconds after a network interface comes up is all that is needed. But once you know your laptop is at IP x.x.x.x that doesn't do YOU a damned bit of good. No ISP is stupid enough to give you the IP+timestamp to physical connection point mapping for liability reasons. Think it through and imagine the Pandora's Box doing that would open. That is what you are actually buying from the tracking company, their preestablished relationships with law enforcement and the ISP community. Once known and trusted as a laptop tracking company they CAN get that info into the hands of law enforcement. Although I bet for legal reasons the tracking company itself NEVER sees the phone number/node/physical address.

  • Roll your own or wait... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dareth (47614) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:45PM (#20658313)
    Either roll your own or wait. If you are lucky, someone will rob Linus Torvalds of his laptop, all production on the kernel will stop while Torvalds and friends crank out a "stolen laptop tracking system" that is greatly superiorthan any other.

    If you are really proactive, you could go steal his laptop yourself. That way you have another laptop to use, and you will jumpstart this scenario.

  • Linux Monitoring (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nosklo (815041) <WPARHFOBFDOT&spammotel,com> on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:46PM (#20658335)
    It seems to me that you can always install some software like that yourself. Once I lost my laptop in my own house. Since I have ipcheck [sourceforge.net] in a cron job, updating my laptop's IP address on DynDns [dyndns.org], I just SSHed into it and made it play loud sounds until I found it under the bed. (I don't answer questions about what it was doing there)

  • I have a question for the question... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lena_10326 (1100441) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:51PM (#20658481) Homepage

    There are companies out there which, for a fee, install tracker software on your laptop. If it's stolen or lost, they track its whereabouts whenever it gets on the 'Net and work with local law enforcement and ISPs to find the machine.
    I've been the victim of a stolen vehicle before... and I know police really don't give a diddly squat about stolen vehicles. Sure, paperwork will be filed but that's all they do. When a stolen vehicle is recovered it's almost always recovered due to happenstance. So, my question is.. what makes anyone think police care about your $1000 laptop when they barely care about your $20,000 vehicle as it is?

    Even with an IP address, postal address, and mapquest directions to the thief's house, I have a hard time believing an officer will put down his chocolate iced donut to go knock on doors over a laptop.

    • Re:I have a question for the question... (Score:5, Informative)

      by bigdavex (155746) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @04:13PM (#20658951)

      I've been the victim of a stolen vehicle before... and I know police really don't give a diddly squat about stolen vehicles. Sure, paperwork will be filed but that's all they do. When a stolen vehicle is recovered it's almost always recovered due to happenstance. So, my question is.. what makes anyone think police care about your $1000 laptop when they barely care about your $20,000 vehicle as it is?

      The impression we get from TV crime drama is out of touch with reality. For lack of resources or otherwise, even violent crimes don't get the attention CSI portrays. I was shot by a robber at a friend's house, and the detective declined to review the crime scene with me. When the police allowed my friend back into the house after they collected the evidence, he pointed out the shooter's hat was still on the table.

      There's nobody with tweezers going through the carpet looking for hairs. Nobody really gives a shit about a laptop or a car except the victim.

  • Don't worry about Ubuntu (Score:5, Funny)

    by gosand (234100) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @03:52PM (#20658519) Homepage
    If you have Linux on your laptop, they won't be able to figure out how to get on the net anyway, especially via wireless. :)

    • Re:For Linux..... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Chineseyes (691744) on Tuesday September 18 2007, @04:38PM (#20659439)
      4. Locate the IP address via DynDNS. Log into the stolen machine. 5. Stream the audio from mics (pipe it from raw device to mp3 and send compressed). Do the same with webcam if it works with Linux 6. Go then show up and stick that fucker up with a gun. See how he likes it. "I want my laptop back.."

      7. Get arrested for assault with a deadly weapon
      8. Go to jail

      I'm not sure where people on slashdot get some of these retarded ideas from but I know someone personally who was held at gunpoint for his belongings when we were in college. The thief used his cellphone that very night and with the help of the cell company he was able to get all of the numbers the person called. A reverse directory lookup later he had the address of one of the thieves friend/female family member.

      After waiting in his car for two days (no shower, no sleep) he finally saw the guy who robbed him walking to his girlfriends house and held him at gunpoint. The guy who had originally robbed him called the cops and told them HE was held at gunpoint and guess where this genius is at now? In a state prison doing his third year for assault with a deadly weapon. When he was sentenced the judge told him that he didn't see any difference between him and the guy who he was robbed by.

      Before you start posting on slashdot advocating vigilante justice I suggest you think about the consequences of being a vigilante. You aren't dog the bounty hunter and this isn't A&E.

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