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Mog
Created : 02 February 2009
Edited : 02 February 2009
System : Linux

An idea to prevent computer theft

Am i becoming paranoid?
I was laying in bed this morning, eying the station where my laptop resides and I was thinking about going to the city. My thoughts turned to everything on my laptop, the data, the sensitive little things I store, and all of my work, and I suddenly cringed with a flash of some jackass lifting it while I wasn't looking or something.

The thought left me a little unsettled. There are years of hard work, as well as all of my clients accounts and information, as well as documents that no one but me should see. Albeit they're safely hidden away (i hate using the word ENCRYPTED, makes me sound like a tool, but yes. They're encrypted and in password protected archives), the thought none-the-less of my personal documents being in the hands of some lowlife spun the gears in my head.

So how's this: Modern laptops, look at them. They have a ton of peripherals. You have major ones, like wireless networking, bluetooth networking, and hardwire ethernet ports, and then you have additions like webcams and microphones, and some nowadays have GPS receivers for those who travel. I stopped looking at these for their general uses and began thinking of ways I could use them against thieves.

Let's go through the process. Your computer gets lifted, thief legs it to X location, opens it up to see what's on it, and here is where my idea kicked in. What if you had a program that took a snapshot every X minutes or so of what it knows from each device, and relays it to a master server. From networking, it can resolve Access Point names and IP address - Very handy if they're still within your area. It would then turn on your webcam and snap a picture, sending it back to a master server, and if you have a GPS module installed, well.. this is pretty much a bullseye on a target. There are other things aswell, such as turning on the microphones to capture voice, and hooking into your laptops bluetooth networking capabilities to make it constantly ping to devices that share the same name / ID as one you set around it to pair, as sort of a cry for help just incase you corner the bandit in a public area and need to know if it's infact your laptop.

One thing i thought about adding was the final alarm. Say you phoned the police and they're searching, and you are certain you have a trail on your computer but you need for the thief to freak out. The master server can send a signal back to this program, which causes the screen to begin flashing and the speakers to blare an alarm. This would scare the hell out of me if I had stolen something.

I know this all sounds insane / outlandish, but think about it in just practicality. Computers have so many exploitable means of capturing what's around them and communicating these features, and you could very well use this to know exactly where it is. I know it relies on the thief to stay in the immediate area or have a wireless connection, but if your data is that important, here's another option I didn't mention: EVDO/3G Wireless Broadband. I've been all over the U.S. and the only area I have lost signal was 700ft underground in solid granite. Pairing this technology, with my program, with GPS, and you're able to communicate your computers exact coordinates practically anywhere in the world, unless they of course, immediately head for where i said.

The final problem this faces is, say they don't boot it, they're just looking to scrap/hock it, in such case - Oh well, there's not really much you can do. I'm merely trying to open the possibility of recovering your stolen property. I'd like to hear what you guys think about such an idea, and if you think i'm just off my rocker or not.

 

Comments
Monday, 02 February 2009, 04:38
Jayenkai
 		1. Format
Problem solved.

But it is a problem. All my stuff's stored at home, on 2 pc's, meaning there's twice as much of a chance of it all being swiped, and hunted through.

But, of course, that's the least of my worries.

If someone does steal my PC, I'd be more worried about the fact that I'd been burgled, than anything else.
About 95% of my data is retrievable in one form or another. But the fact that I'd have had stuff nicked would be freaking me out!


To stop it happening, simply lock up the laptop in the safe, each and every night.
Problem solved..
Monday, 02 February 2009, 04:41
Mog
 		But i'm more afraid of this just being lifted. Yes, I could be burgled and whatnot, and that would suck bad. But I'm aiming this more at street thieves. It was reported in my city that over 20 devices are stolen a week in the metro area. I'm more trying to prevent people from scouring my data for information and whatnot.
Monday, 02 February 2009, 04:48
Jayenkai
 		Yikes!! 20 a week! That's a lot of data going missing..
Monday, 02 February 2009, 05:02
JL235
 		Macs have an app or OS feature that will e-mail you a picture from the webcam if it's moved. The idea is to send you the face of the person stealing it.
Monday, 02 February 2009, 06:37
Mog
 		Yep, and the more media you have of someone, the easier it is to prosecute them in court. My idea started with spying on people through my webcam, then i said 'well if i can turn it on without the person knowing, then if someone were to steal it, you could log their face, voice, and surroundings.
Monday, 02 February 2009, 06:53
steve_ancell
 		LOL, I just thought about how dumb most chavs are. Leave the laptop out in full view, that's probably the only place a chav wouldn't think of looking
Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:02
Tikihead
 		Sounds like a good idea, but if I were to steal a laptop and a loud alarm went off, I would probably drop it and run. Key word: drop.
Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:11
Stealth
 		This could work but it would have to be a core part of the operating system. Microsoft should build it in to Windows.

I like the idea though.
Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 15:35
blanko1324
 		I could have sworn there was a story about this actually happening; maybe it was just a tv show though...A guy got his laptop stolen, and he used a remote desktop service to activate the webcam or something crazy...

|edit| Ah Hah! |edit|
Monday, 09 February 2009, 17:23
mindstorm8191
 		Well, there's two seperate concerns here. One is the laptop itself, which if it is something new, is pretty valuable. The other is the data on it, which as you say, is extremely valuable and shouldn't be trusted to anyone else.

To protect the data, something like this might not work. It would depend on how prepared the thief is. If they are targeting your computer directly, they might plug in a device, gather all the files and dump the laptop. If they are less prepared, then the files you have with encryption could most likely still be protected. All you would have to worry about is having proper backups and getting the laptop replaced.

To protect the laptop itself from someone who just wants a laptop, there might not be alot you can do. Once they reformat the hard drive all the protection you had doesn't matter. They would probably want to run their own software anyways. Perhaps you could build a program to prevent reformatting without the right password.