Theres retail products available for notebook recovery (must be implimented prior to theft). Some involve GPS while others are just stickers or insurance etc. Putting identifying marks on the laptop do not hurt ( http://www.honolulupd.org/community/opid.htm ). Report it stolen to the police with all this info, pictures recommended. Then you can check HPD Evidence/Lost and Found at 529-3283. They used to have an online lsiting but not anymore.
I would try to avoid it in the first place. By using smartcards you could really piss-off the thieves so they end-up asking a smart person for help reconfiguring it (and increase chances that it'll get turned-in). Fujitsu/Seimens notebooks (and even sceneic desktops w/ a optional reader) supported smartcard auth in the bios. Combine that with a really small lifebook and it would be very difficult hack the bios, etc. the white paper on it is here: http://support.fujitsu-siemens.de/SecurityCD/Docu/UK/PC-Security/wp_systemlock_e.pdf Tom "R. Scott Belford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 03/11/04 09:29 AM Please respond to luau To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject: Re: [luau] Be on the lookout for Stolen laptops Ronald Willis wrote: > Does anyone know if these unfortunate travelers had a beacon installed or if > they > have record of a mac address? This reminded me of a great article I found on /. in 2002. I hunted it down http://macscripter.net/unscripted/unscripted.php?id=12_0_1_0_C They didn't use the mac address, but they did find the stolen laptop. I will always remember the very nice iBook one of the cashiers at Price Busters showed me and said that her cousin had bought it for only $200, without the power supply. It was so hot I wouldn't even touch it. I asked her to please report it. What stands out is that the thief did not take the laptop to a shop, he sold it as is to a friend, who then gave it to his cousin, the cashier, so that she could as her company's "computer guy." If these laptops take a similar route, I fear that it would be hard to recover them. This makes me wonder, and perhaps some of you have an answer, what is the best way to get your laptop back if it is stolen? I suppose that if one can boot off of a cd and re-install, all bets are off. Does anyone out there have a strategy or a technology in place to prevent this? --scott _______________________________________________ LUAU mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/luau