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Undercover Tracks Stolen Macs

Undercover Tracks Stolen Macs

by , 8:55 AM EST, January 18th, 2006

Orbicule announced the immediate availability of Undercover on Wednesday. The application monitors the status of your Mac, and alerts the Undercover server of its location via the Internet in the event it is stolen. Orbicule tracks the location of the stolen Mac, and sends screenshots of the computer's activity to the Undercover server. Orbicule works with local law enforcement authorities to recover your computer. If that fails, Undercover can simulate a hardware failure in an attempt to get the thief to send the Mac in for servicing.

Undercover requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, and runs natively on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Additional information is available at the Orbicule Web site. Undercover is priced at US$29.99.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:37 am Subject:

Wish I'd of had this a couple years ago. I might still have my 17" PB


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Close Name:Guest
Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:28 pm Subject: Or at the very least you would have had a better chance of..

Quote
Guest wrote:
Wish I'd of had this a couple years ago. I might still have my 17" PB


Or at the very least you would have had a _better_ chance of having your property recovered.

I'd suspect that if the thief was smart enough to wipe the hard drive before trying to use it even with this software your 17" PB might still be at large and MIA. Of course most thiefs would probably skip this step as Mac OS X software isn't as familiar to the general public as Windows is. Most thief's greed in trying to profit even more from their ill gained booty would likely cause them to comb through the machine looking for useful data to exploit.

However the software does sound potentially useful.

-- C


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Close Name:Guest
Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:25 pm Subject: So the thief inserts a tiger CD and reformats your drive

Guess it doesn't protect against that.


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Close Name:Guest
Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:43 pm Subject: From the Undercover Website re: formatting.

I had a look at the website and thought it may be of interest:
"Undercover can not be disabled by the thief. If you install Apple's firmware password, your Mac can not be formatted without knowing your firmware password."

BTW, it's been my experience most thieves just steal computers for the money for their next fix. The goods often turn up in dodgey interstate second-hand goods shops or are sold 'real cheap' at the local bar.


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Close Name:Guest
Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:05 am Subject: LoJack for your Mac?

Can we trust that this is simply LoJack for your Mac?

OR is it potentially Spyware that you invite in through your front door?
....................................
Excerpt from their site:

Routine checks

When your Mac is online, Undercover checks our database every few minutes to verify whether the Mac it is running on is in our database of stolen Macs. If it's not, nothing happens and no data will be transfered from your Mac to our server.
...................................

What do we know about the integrity of this company?

There are precedents on the PC side for concern in this regard.

Neal Corneilius
Vernon, CA


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