Laptop Stolen! what security precautions ?

[NSXBOX]

Hi guys.
Geeze not having much luck. My work laptop was stolen from my car. It was a random break in to my BMW cos the laptop was out of sight.

Anyways, stupid me i didnt have a password on it. I hope its some guy who will just sell it to a pawn shop and they will reformat but if not is there any security precautions ?

is there anyway we can track to see if someone is using it with my current setup ?

Thanx.

Luckless Nico

 

[Hugh]

Immediately go to all of your online accounts (email, web log ons, anything using a username and password) and change them immediately if you haven't already done so.

There's really no way to track the laptop. Sorry for the loss, that's got to be a royal pain in the ass.

 

[coolnsx]

Even though it's too late they now offer Loc Jac service for laptops, you might consider it for your replacement. Sorry for the loss.

 

[downwiz2]

thats why you use linux.

 

[Hugh]

thats why you use linux.

Cool! So if he had Linux installed on his laptop, it would have detected the theft in progress then automtically dispensed nerve gas from one of the USB ports thereby incapacitating the theif?

 

[flaminio]

It's too late for the OP, but a word of advice: NEVER leave a laptop in a car. I work in IT for a mediumish company (~700 laptop users), and one gets stolen practically weekly. And it's always from a car.

As far as security, there are things that you can do before the laptop gets stolen, but once that is done all you can do is change all your passwords and hope for the best. You might want to inform your various banks and other financial institutions to be on the watch for identity theft, if sufficient personal information can be gleaned from the laptop's contents.

 

[PoohBEAR]

I am sorry for your loss. I doubt there is anything you can do to retrieve it. However, you may want to Lo Jac it to protect your contents. In additions, you may want to have this in your trunk .....
http://gprime.net/video.php/trunkmonkey2

 

[NSXBOX]

whats a loc jac ?
i wonder if those finger readers are any good.

yeah i know dont leave it in the car but it was out of sight. and we have dvd stereos, shopping and stuff which we leave in the car. i just had crap luck last night.

I've changed all my passwords online.

thanx guys.

 

[NeoNSX]

Nico, you should have called me. I would have told you everything Hugh said.

Cool! So if he had Linux installed on his laptop, it would have detected the theft in progress then automtically dispensed nerve gas from one of the USB ports thereby incapacitating the theif?

Depends on the maker. If you run Linux on a Dell notebook, it will send out 20,000volts to an unauthorized user. Particularly nasty if you're using the laptop on your lap. :tongue:

 

[NsXMas]

I use true crypt to encrypt all sensitive content on my laptop, as I used to do a fair bit of travelling.

True Crypt is free and easy to use, and no regular thief is going to even know that you have sensitive data on it, or be able to hack it.

 

[coolnsx]

Th Lo Jac system allows the authorites to trace the location of the stolen laptop using radio signals and recover the unit.

 

[Arshad]

Actually, I believe the laptop lo jac simply sends a packet to the security companies server identifying its IP whenever it's connected to the net. This can often help track it down (but can still be difficult to physically find based on IP alone). There are a number of different software packages that do this, some with better ties to law enforcement, some that periodically send screenshots, some that allow you to remotely disable/reformat the machine etc.

 

[NsXMas]

Actually, I believe the laptop lo jac simply sends a packet to the security companies server identifying its IP whenever it's connected to the net. This can often help track it down (but can still be difficult to physically find based on IP alone). There are a number of different software packages that do this, some with better ties to law enforcement, some that periodically send screenshots, some that allow you to remotely disable/reformat the machine etc.

That's assuming a DUMB thief.

If I was into the laptop stealing business, I'd simply copy the data off the hard drive to a slave drive on another PC, and then examine the data at my leisure.

Then I'd reformat the hard drive on the laptop, clean any LO JACK non-sense off of it, and use the laptop as I wished.

LO JACK for a laptop sounds like a weak solution.

People need to protect their data with things like TRUE CRYPT and other encryption applications.

Th Lo Jac system allows the authorites to trace the location of the stolen laptop using radio signals and recover the unit.

Just to clarify Gil, the system you're referring to only applies to automobiles.

Laptops have no physical tracing system like this - the Lo Jack system alone costs the price of a laptop.

 

[downwiz2]

Cool! So if he had Linux installed on his laptop, it would have detected the theft in progress then automtically dispensed nerve gas from one of the USB ports thereby incapacitating the theif?

keep your pants on.. .the point is that he wouldn't need to worry about his personal stuff bein exposed had he installed a secure password. linux is very good for this. not many ppl use linux, the thief probalby won't know how to use it adn end up formatting the HD.

 

[Arshad]

NsXMas: I agree, that solution has resulted in some recovered laptops, but if you have sensitive data on your drive, it needs to be encrypted regardless. Some OS's, eg. MacOS allows you to create encrypted filesystems (using the built-in FileVault).

 

[robr]

keep your pants on.. .the point is that he wouldn't need to worry about his personal stuff bein exposed had he installed a secure password. linux is very good for this. not many ppl use linux, the thief probalby won't know how to use it adn end up formatting the HD.

So... security by obscurity? One of Microsoft's favorite techniques. Unless it's encrypted, it's not secure. Just pull the drive from the laptop, even if you don't know the password and mount it on another machine to get to the data. Windows even has drivers that will let you read ext3.

 

[ibDursty]

I just got down encrypting all the laptops on the contract that work on (about a 100) with PGP full disk encription. Actually it was a corporation level decision to do that to all all laptops )and some desktops) corporate wide (about 20,000 computers in all). One draw back is that it does slow some laptop funtions down a little and some of our users complained but they didn't have a choice in the matter. Upgrading the uses that complained the most to 1 gig of RAM instead of 512m seemed to help a little with some of the slowdowns. Sucks to lose your laptop.. if it was XP with a password hopefully they will just reformat the drive and sell it on ebay, or just use it for themselves.

 

[KODIAC]

I've had this happen also, and we reported it with dell... we just write it off, but in the event that anyone ever tries to get support from dell, they will take all information about it to the police. LOOOOOOOOONG shot, but hey... if it gets their ass great

 

[Ryanmcd2]

lol, Linux the cure to all the world's problems. Use windows and enjoy the computer.

Cool! So if he had Linux installed on his laptop, it would have detected the theft in progress then automtically dispensed nerve gas from one of the USB ports thereby incapacitating the theif?