I posted a blog about six weeks ago which talked about ways of operating your computer remotely. And a story that's been circulating this week has shown that this ability to log in to your machine across the internet and launch programs thereon has managed to catch two laptop thieves red handed – thanks to the laptop's built-in webcam.
When a friend of the woman who had been burgled noticed that her missing computer was connected to the internet, it was just a question of her logging into the computer using the "Back To My Mac" feature, launching the Photo Booth application, and then waiting for the criminal to come back into the room and sit down in front of the computer. Bingo; a perfect mugshot for the police.
But it's not necessary for your laptop to have a webcam in order to take advantage of this kind of hi-tech sleuthing. A piece of Mac software by Orbicule called Undercover quietly sits on your machine, doing nothing whatsoever until you register it as stolen on the website. As soon as the stolen machine is connected to the internet (which, in this day and age, it inevitably will be) the software kicks into action, collecting network information, along with screen-shots of any emails the thief might be writing and any internet pages he's browsing.
If, for some reason, this isn't enough for the police to go on, the software eventually simulates a hardware failure – which should encourage the thief to sell it, or take it to be repaired; and when the new owner or the repair shop connects it to the net, a message will appear informing them that it has been stolen, with Orbicule's contact details. Cunning.
Ah, I hear you say, but what if the thief does a completely clean install of the system software? Well, setting a firmware password on your Mac will prevent them from even doing that.
PC users have an option, too: Absolute's Lo-Jack. Both software packages come in at under $50, with money-back guarantees if they fail to reunite you with your machine.
CONFUSED ABOUT TECHNOLOGY? SUBMIT YOUR QUERIES TO CYBERCLINIC USING THE COMMENT FORM BELOW, OR EMAIL QUESTIONS HERE.
Interestingly, I've been following another very similar story to this one on one of the communities on LiveJournal. The difference with the LJ story is that the local (US) police seemed far less enthusiastic to get involved, largely because of a lack of knowledge.
While it's heartening to hear such success stories as above, I think they're likely to remain few and far between until we get a more tech-savvy police force.
Posted by: John | Tuesday, 13 May 2008 at 11:57 PM
John, could you point me to the story on LJ?
Posted by: Rhodri Marsden | Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 12:04 AM
Unfortunately, it's friendslocked at the moment because someone pointed out that a) the thieves in question could theoretically find it and b) that discussing such things in public probably wasn't a great idea anyway - when lawyers get involved, who knows what might happen.
Can you see my email address through the blog? If so, drop me a line and I'll send you as much of a summary as I can.
Posted by: John | Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 08:51 AM
Reading the article in yesterday's Independent, I'd appreciate advice on how to turn on my laptop webcam remotely - presumably this cannot be done from the free version of logmein.com
Also are there any free ways of getting IP addresses? whatsmyip.com is a portal and most of the resources seem to be by subscription.
many thanks
Ian
Posted by: Ian Wilson | Thursday, 22 May 2008 at 10:09 AM
hi Ian,
Logmein.com - just like Back To My Mac - shows you the screen of the remote computer, and allows you to do what you like. As if you were sitting in front of it. So on a Mac, if you just launch the Photo Booth application, the webcam automatically starts up and shows you what it can see.
The URL should have read whatismyip.com.
Rhodri
Posted by: Rhodri Marsden | Thursday, 22 May 2008 at 10:17 AM