[August 21, 2011] The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, S.C., The IT Guy column Tweet Aug 21, 2011 (The Island Packet - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- After my last column about the "FBI Child ID" app, I was contacted by Investigator George Erdel of the Beaufort Police Department who suggested I write about some of the software out there for recovering stolen laptops. I thought that was a great idea. The two that I am most familiar with are LoJack for Laptops (absolute.com/en/lojackforlaptops/home.aspx), which is a paid service that starts at $39.99 for two years, and the open source Prey Project (preyproject.com), which is free. Here are some of Erdel's insights on computer theft: Question. Approximately how many cases of computer theft do you see on a yearly basis in Beaufort? Answer. I can only give you at this point a rough estimate of about 50 computer-involved cases last year. That number includes some instances of multiple computers being taken in one incident. The number goes up when you consider other devices that are technically computers, like game consoles. Q. Is most of the theft centered around laptops, or do you see smartphone and other gadgets being targeted as well? A. Laptops seem to be the bulk of what is being taken, but smartphones are being targeted as well. Q. Have you recovered computers using tracking software, such as Prey or LoJack for Laptops? If so, can you describe how the police get involved after the software traces the device and what happens next? A. We have recovered several computers through the use of LoJack. In the event a computer equipped with the software is stolen, the victim files a police report and also contacts Absolute (the makers of Lojack for Laptops) to report the theft. The LoJack software calls in to a monitoring center on a set interval. Once Absolute marks the device as stolen, on the next call in the server tells the software to begin recording information on the stolen machine, to include IP address information, screen shots, physical location based on nearby Wi-Fi hot spots and even keystroke logs. This information is then forwarded to someone with Absolute, whose team consists of former law enforcement officers. The Absolute team will build a profile of who is using the stolen machine and forward it to an officer in the location where it is being used. Using the information that Absolute gives us, we are able to obtain search warrants and recover machines from those who have them. Q. Would you say people who steal computers or gadgets are more intelligent than average thieves? For example, I have read that many thieves that target iPhones now know to turn the device off immediately so it can't be tracked. A. In my experience most thieves are not technically savvy. The people who are smart enough to find and disable this kind of software are generally smart enough not to be a thief in the first place. All of the suspects we encountered after finding them with LoJack never thought about being tracked and were surprised when we came to get the computer. In fact, on our first recovery in 2009 the suspect was computer literate and had gotten into some trouble when he was a teenager for hacking. He stole the computer from the building he worked in and formatted the hard drive specifically to make sure there was no software which might give him away. The LoJack software is hardware persistent and resides in the BIOS, so it re- installed itself and continued reporting his every move on the computer. He was not happy he got arrested, but he did grudgingly admire the ingenuity of the software. Q. What's something everyone should do to protect their computers from theft? A. One of the main things I would like to get across to people is to record the serial numbers of any computers, game consoles or smartphones they buy. Ideally they should photograph the item and install some form of theft-recovery software, but if they have the serial number then a lot of times we can find the device through more low-tech means. Theft protection should be done in layers. The more, the better. Most people don't think about theft prevention until after their computer has already been stolen. Morgan Bonner is Pre-Press Manager and a systems administrator for the Packet and Gazette To see more of The Island Packet, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.islandpacket.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, S.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]