Stolen Laptop Alarms

torok writes "Three Engineering students from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada have developed a laptop alarm complete with remote pager that detects if your laptop is being moved and sounds an alarm. The article is a bit sketchy on details, but it sounds like a cool idea."

I go to Simon Fraser University

[Zork the Almighty]

... and if I hear one of these going off during a test, I'll find the engineers and beat them up!

Re:I go to Simon Fraser University

[nial-in-a-box]

How true though. Honestly, do we need another car alarm type of device? I live in a very high density urban setting, and we are plagued with car alarms constantly. As my uncle once put it, they are the most ignored (yet annoying) sound in America. The police only care about them because of the noise. I am willing to wager my life on at least 99% of the actual, real-world car alarm soundings are false alarms of one sort or another. And I'm not just talking about worthless (except for car finding for the inept) panic buttons. We're trying to deal with air pollution, we're looking at light pollution, now let's save our ears with less noise pollution. Please!

Actually, if you read the article

[The Tyro]

You'll find that it gives you a five-second window to deactivate before the alarm starts blaring...

Should cut down on the noise pollution "oops, accidently tripped my alarm" incidents.

Besides, it's not like a car alarm that goes off when somebody walks too close to it (or brushes up against your door in the parking lot, or taps your car with a shopping cart, etc). Somebody actually has to pick this up and move it before it sounds the alarm. Personally, if somebody is moving my laptop in my absence, you can bet I'm going to assume the worst and correct their behavior...

Sign me up for one of these babies.

Re:I go to Simon Fraser University

[NanoGator]

"... and if I hear one of these going off during a test, I'll find the engineers and beat them up!"

Or you'll just use the internet to threaten them anonymously.

Damn laptop alarms

[Anonymous Coward]

Like car alarms, I'm sure that laptop alarms will prove to be an important tool in the war on theft... not. This is going to be annoying as hell.

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[nodwick]

The creators say exactly the same thing:

The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between the laptop and its owner (about 15 feet) before the gizmo works.

"There are lots of systems out there that have just a thing that detects motion, so it blasts a siren just like the car alarms that no one listens to these days," said Mitchell.

What they don't say is how their device solves the problem. As far as I can tell, when it goes off, it still makes the same annoying sounds.

I disagree that loud laptop alarms won't be effective because they're unnoticed -- after all, the places they'd be used would most likely be study areas or libraries, which are typically very quiet. A 105 decibel alarm [pcmag.com] in such an area would certainly get people's attention. The problem is that it'd be terribly obnoxious as well. Personally, I think if someone did use one of these somewhere like a library, it'd work great scaring off the would-be thief but not so great against the subsequent mob coming to bash it into silence with textbooks and binders ...

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[Prof.Phreak]

Personally, I think if someone did use one of these somewhere like a library, it'd work great scaring off the would-be thief but not so great against the subsequent mob coming to bash it into silence with textbooks and binders ...

Possibly. Then again, people in the library may be GLAD the laptop gets stolen (anything to shut the noise! :-)

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[nial-in-a-box]

Projections and claims of low false alarms are most assuredly false themselves. Pretty much everything any product developer/manufacturer says is an exaggeration. We all know this.

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[daveo0331]

I disagree that loud laptop alarms won't be effective because they're unnoticed -- after all, the places they'd be used would most likely be study areas or libraries, which are typically very quiet

Unfortunately, a lot of laptop theft happens in really noisy places like airports and train stations. If one of these goes off in the terminal at O'Hare or LAX, it will get ignored. I agree it would be useful at the library though.

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[FlameboyC11]

I doubt in this time and age, a black box being carried by a rapidly walking person making a loud, alarm like noise would be disregarded in any sort of transportation terminal. Airports have been locked-down for less...

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[Odin's Raven]

Unfortunately, a lot of laptop theft happens in really noisy places like airports and train stations. If one of these goes off in the terminal at O'Hare or LAX, it will get ignored.

So have an "airport mode" for the system that changes the alarm from a generic siren to a prerecorded message. Something like, oh...

I AM A BOMB!
I AM A BOMB!
...AND BY THE WAY, THE PERSON CARRYING ME HAS BEEN FEELING VERY DEPRESSED LATELY...

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[geoffspear]

Yeah, but after the TSA shoots the thief and then blows up your laptop just to be safe, you're still out a laptop.

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[daveo0331]

But on the plus side, that's one less laptop thief, and your data hasn't been stolen. Big companies tend to worry a lot more about people stealing confidential data than they do about having to pay to replace hardware.

Re:Damn laptop alarms

[javatips]

No it will not... you sould have RTFA a bit more closely... They device motion sensor will be activated when the owner if 15 or more feet away from the device.

So it will go off only if someone move the laptop when the owner is not near.

What it doesn't do

[mgv]

Remote tracking

Its one thing to know that your laptop is being stolen, and another to be able to track it down.

Something with a GPS would be more useful.

Michael

Re:What it doesn't do

[The Snowman]

My boss had his work laptop stolen. Someone broke into his car while on a business trip, left the CDs, DVDs, etc. and took the computer. Despite calling to various pawn shops and computer shops, it has not turned up. It probably never will.

You are correct: an alarm is useless. If you are in a mall or store and your car alarm goes off, will you notice? Doubtful. But if your car had GPS, the police could track it down and recover it. Same with laptops.

Of course, we do not need Big Brother looking out for us, so any such system needs to have privacy measures built in, to include requiring consent of the owner (with some form of ID and proof of ownership) or a warrant from a judge to back it up.

Re:What it doesn't do

[jhunsake]

your car alarm goes off, will you notice?

No, and no one else will either. Alarms going off has become so prevalent in our society that most people ignore them. When was the last time you saw someone concerned about a car alarm going off? I live in a college town and everyone ignores fire alarms because they are falsely triggered (ie intentionally pulled) all the time. I think the only alarms people pay attention to anymore are the ones we use to wake up. And that's only because they're so damn annoying.

Re:What it doesn't do

[ozbird]

Alarms going off has become so prevalent in our society that most people ignore them. When was the last time you saw someone concerned about a car alarm going off?

It depends on the alarm. Anything that sounds like an alarm (or a cellphone) will get ignored. A more cunning alarm would shout "Fire!", "Rape!", "Help! I'm being kidnapped" or "Free beer!"

Re:What it doesn't do

[cerberusss]

Someone broke into his car while on a business trip, left the CDs, DVDs, etc. and took the computer

I'm working at a consulting company, i.e. programmer-for-hire. This is a MAJOR problem. Thieves are on the lookout for your laptop and they are not easily scared. We've had several stories: people going for a cup of coffee - laptop gone. People coming home, unloading groceries, coming back for the laptop - gone.

We've even had people who walked to their car, opened the passenger's side and put their laptop in. Then walked to the other side of the car and go and sit behind the wheel, just to see a hand grabbing their laptop. Thugs actually waited on the carpark waiting for people to get into their cars!!! You have to be extremely paranoid nowadays.

RE: laptop thefts

[King_TJ]

Several years ago, I remember issuing one of our company's salespeople a brand new Toshiba laptop with all the extras. He immediately took it, placed it in his new leather carrying bag, and put it in the trunk of his car. Later that afternoon, someone had taken a crow-bar, pried his trunk open, and stolen the whole thing - while his car sat in the company parking lot!

Laptop theft is VERY popular, because of the ease of reselling them, the portability, and the fact that you don't look "out of place" carry

Re:What it doesn't do

[rampant mac]

"Remote tracking"

That reminds me of a story... Some guy tracked down a stolen iMac [macworld.com] using Applescript and Timbucktu.

It's actually an interesting read to see how this guy traced an iMac stolen from his sister's home.

Re:What it doesn't do

[nial-in-a-box]

Well a GPS is nice, but a GPS is not a homing device in and of itself. GPS devices recieve, they do not transmit. The only reason that services like OnStar work is by integrating a [analog] cell phone into the system somehow. If this was external, it would be simply to sever it from the laptop. If this device was internalized, laptops would have to increase noticeably in size and weight. Though this would be cool, it would involve monthly/yearly fees as well as weight and power tradeoffs. Most laptop users wouldn't want those tradeoffs. I know I wouldn't. If can simply not be lazy and put the damned thing in standby and bring it with you when it needs to be out of eyesight, it will never have the chance of being stolen. Cool, huh?

Re:What it doesn't do

[nodwick]

Yeah, that was my first thought too. What's stopping them from adding that? One word: cost.

Your typical motion sensor lock [pcmag.com] runs for $50 list, probably less on the street. Add an entry-level GPS receiver, retailing for around $120 [staples.com]. Toss in extra money to support a transceiver that broadcasts the notebook's position (remember, the GPS unit by itself just lets the notebook know where it is; you have to have some way for it to send that location to you), tamper-proofing/camoflage (how good's your GPS receiver if the thief just snaps off your antenna?), monthly charges for monitoring and a call center, and you're probably looking at $400 or more plus subscription. That might be peanuts for a car of $20,000+, but on your $1000 laptop, that's a significant chunk of change.

Re:What it doesn't do

[puhuri]

I think you are overestimating the add expenses because lots of that stuff can be integrated to laptop with a lot lower cost when it is designed. I think motion sensor (a chip) itself does not cost much and a PC has enough processing power to handle signal same way sa temperature sensors (I think in stand-alone system prosessing, battery and case are the most expensive part, not the actual sensor).

A GPS system is not a good method to locate laptops, because they are mostly used indoors - cars are much mor

Re:What it doesn't do

[tftp]

Accelerometers are quite expensive [digikey.com] ($100 for sufficiently sensitive ones.) They can be built into the notebooks; however with today's price of a new, good notebook being well below $1000 there is not much room for innovation...

Re:What it doesn't do

[Vexinator]

I think you are overlooking something important:

The loss of the laptop hardware is often peanuts compared to the value of data residing on its hard disk.

Filesystem encryption is a "good thing"...

Re:What it doesn't do

[hondo_san]

OK, so the guy tracked his stolen laptop. I've often thought about a way to run that as a daemon. How about a trojan "periscope" app that talks to headquarters whenever an Internet connection is established, and if the laptop is stolen, the stealee can not only track, but instruct the laptop to eat the cyanide pill.

"Hi, thanks for calling tech support, my name is Larry, how can I help?"

"Yeah, I've got a problem. That stupid laptop theft thingie, well yeah, umm, like I've got this Powerpoint presentation

suggested alarm sound

[netfall]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!! Now if only the robot would come and kick the crap out of the guy taking the laptop... that would be great.

Re:suggested alarm sound

[Dimensio]

How about 'dummy' laptops that, when stolen, could be triggered to explode. You could get rid of computer thieves that way.

Re:suggested alarm sound

[Chatmag]

How about the "You've Got Mail" voice, over and over and over, etc. A lot of the general public is already conditioned to react negatively to anything AOL related, so I figure they would attack the thief out of habit.

Stolen Laptop Alarms

[indianseason]

Is this where I can look at stolen laptop alarms? Mine was stolen last week on the subway...

Re:Stolen Laptop Alarms

[Squiffy]

Yeah, I was thinking, "Who would steal a laptop alarm?"

Then I thought, "Oh, someone was alarmed by a stolen laptop." I'd find that pretty alarming.

But seriously, I can see how an alarm would be useful for a stolen laptop. I mean, whoever took it knows that you can't trust anyone.

Targus Defcon

[nial-in-a-box]

Perhaps not exactly the same, but it's already been done for $50 [targus.com].

Re:Targus Defcon

[nial-in-a-box]

Ok, so I read the article a little more closely, and yes, their idea is good, but it's also pretty costly for what it does. Basically, a little common sense is all you need. No security system is failproof. Everyone knows that even though it's unlikely, your home could get broken into this very night. Still, you'll leave your laptop unsecured on a desk or in a bag or wherever seems fit. However, if you're in a library or a coffee shop or wherever you wouldn't normally leave your laptop unoccupied, woul

Re:Targus Defcon

[The Snowman]

Everyone knows that even though it's unlikely, your home could get broken into this very night.

Not just unlikely, but improbable. Somebody broke into my mother in law's fenced-in yard. It has a brand new steel fence with a gate. So someone walked up and opened the man-sized gate, no big deal. He stole a flatbed trailer. How they got the trailer into the yard, I do not know, and how this guy got the thing out, I do not know. Obviously he did not drive a truck through the fence. The only thing I can think of is four of five guys turned it sideways and walked through the gate or passed it over the top of the fence.

My point is, thieves strike at the worst times in the most improbable ways. You never see it coming because you do not expect it to come. Always be prepared: keep your shit locked up, and make sure you have insurance. If a laptop is stolen from your house, most home insurance policies should cover the loss. Even with depreciation you should get enough to help cover the cost of a new laptop.

Re:Targus Defcon

[dandelion_wine]

Calhouns in Van is a popular place to study, write papers, and whatnot. 24 hour coffee and snacks. But if you're there by yourself, you gonna pack up your laptop when you go to the bathroom? I don't think so. Not going to the bathroom? Well, I be drinkin coffee.

You're right. A lock is necessary, but I wouldn't leave my laptop for 5 minutes simply locked down, nor would I leave it unlocked and alarmed. Shackle it to the table and add the alarm, however, and suddenly I'm in excellent shape if someone wants t

Re:Targus Defcon

[TheNumberSix]

You can also get "Computer Riders" on home insurance policies which specifically cover losses and damage to your home computers/laptops.

I have one and it cost about an extra $12.00 per year on my renter's insurance.

A pretty fair deal for the amount of gear I have.

There's a Difference

[mistermund]

Perhaps not exactly the same, but it's already been done for $50.

Yeah, but if you RFTA, the difference is their device doesn't activate until the remote (which is intended to be kept with the owner) is arounf 15ft away from the laptop.

From the article:
"The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between th

pcmcia card alarm

[SuperBanana]

Perhaps not exactly the same, but it's already been done for $50

Looks exactly the same, minus the pager thing, which is probably only good for about the same range as a really loud siren.

There's also a company that made a PCMCIA version; if you moved the laptop any more than a certain amount, it started shrieking using a siren built-in to the card itself. I think it might have also had some software tie-ins, don't remember what

Targus Defcon: A waste of $50?

[Spoing]

From the FAQ for the Targus Defcon;

1. Q. Combination lost and Unit Locked. How Do I remove the DEFCON 1 if the device can not be unlocked?

   A. If the battery is installed, then you will first want to disable its electronic alarm.

Break open the battery compartment to remove the battery

Cut the cable with a wire cutter (note: an ordinary paper cutter will not do); if the battery is still in the unit when the cable is cut, the alarm will sound continuously.

Re:Targus Defcon

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

I'm late to the party, so I'm tagging along on your comment, but this idea is hardly new, I had a 286 Bondwell laptop that came with a built-in alarm. It was a mercury type switch, once set, if you moved the laptop, a BIOS-type password would lock the hard drive and a *LOUD* wail would be emitted.

This was way back in 1992....

Profit Potential

[use_compress]

1. Secretly Detach Laptop Alarm
2. Attach to dog Bowser and set dog free.
3. Claim that laptop was lost.
4. ???.
5. Profit.
6. Buy new laptop with alarm.
7. Repeat.

Next step: detonator

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't find the guy who walked off with your laptop, press button 'B' and collect his ashes.

How is it going to work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Beep beep beep, you laptop is being stolen.

Beep beep beep, you will never see it again.

Beep beep beep, haha.

My personal way

[Bobdoer]

I just keep a laptop that isn't worth stealing.

Re:My personal way

[The Snowman]

I just keep a laptop that isn't worth stealing.

The only laptop I have is when my wife... oh, you meant laptop computer, right?

Re:My personal way

[NanoGator]

"I just keep a laptop that isn't worth stealing."

Yeah, I run Linux too. The joke's on them when they pop in Vice City!!

(Man I hope the mods are in good humor today.)

Why do people steal laptops?

[ObviousGuy]

I wonder what possesses people to steal others' laptops. Is there a deep insatiable need to steal inherent in the theives that brings them to that point? Are they doing it for kicks? Are used laptops really selling for so much at pawn shops and computer shows?

If we could understand the motivations of the theives, perhaps we could do away with these band-aid measures and find a way to keep laptops safe without having to resort to alarms, locks, and any number of other gizmos that only make owning a laptop a pain in the ass.

Re:Why do people steal laptops?

[photonX]

"I wonder what possesses people to steal others' laptops. Is there a deep insatiable need to steal inherent in the theives that brings them to that point?"

I guess the same thing that keeps me from going down to Best Buy every payday to buy a new laptop is what motivates the thieves. It's like walking into the library and seeing a stack of hundred dollar bills sitting on a table.

Now, what I would *really* like to see is an exploding dye packet, like the ones the banks slip into the stolen money during rob

Re:Why do people steal laptops?

[corian]

Now, what I would *really* like to see is an exploding dye packet, like the ones the banks slip into the stolen money during robberies. Slide it in and close the cover. When the thief opens the lid for the first time...BAM...all of a sudden he looks like one of those blue guys in the Pentium ads.

And your laptop is also blue. The result being, even if you do manage to get your laptop back, you STILL need to buy a new one!

Re:Why do people steal laptops?

[daveo0331]

Thieves are often more interested in the data on the laptop than they are in the laptop itself. Nobody got rich taking stolen laptops to the pawn shop, but you can get rich stealing competitiors' product designs, or getting next quarter's MSFT earnings report before it's released.

Also, if they're just looking for quick drug money, laptop theft isn't such a bad way to do it. Grabbing a laptop at the airport and pawning it makes a lot more money than sticking up a 7-eleven for the 20 bucks in the register,

Re:Why do people steal laptops?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find this hard to believe.

I've dealt with stolen computer equipment. Both with tracking down our own lost equipment and I knew a guy who dealt in stolen laptops.

What happens to stolen computer equipment? Ebay. That's where a lot of it ends up.

Some of it also is sold in person, but never by the person who stole it. The particular guy I knew had a loose network of people with whom he'd trade laptops so the laptops he sold came from the other coast of the US.

In all cases, these guys are usually pretty dumb. The won't even format the machines but that's not because they care about the data, it's because they can't deal with basic driver/software issues. If the machine has a BIOS password on it, it ends up in the dumpster. Software-based "phone home" theft prevention systems are likely quite successful - one of our own machines was tracked down that way, but the software that called home was meant for our own usage auditing, not for tracking stolen equipment.

I really find it hard to believe that someone would try to steal a laptop for the data on it. First of all, you need to know whose machine you're taking and that means trailing someone around for days until the machine is left unattended. This is very unlikely - thieves don't operate like this. If you just grabbed a random laptop and happened to find some MSFT financial reports on it, how exactly would you sell that? Do you call up IBM's corporate espionage hotline from a payphone? I mean, come on, be realistic.

The only way a thief could possibly care about the data on a laptop is if a stolen machine coincidentally happened to lead to some hot investment tip, like an upcoming takeover (or something else that the thief could capitalize on without threat of discovery), but the people that steal laptops don't have accounts with Merryl Lynch, but rather accounts with their drug dealer. If the thief actually had some computer/engineering/financial know-how, he would have a better-paying safer job, but these people don't know how to operate Excel.

It can be tempting to fantasize about a stolen laptop underground with international spies and mob bosses, but these thieves aren't exactly long-term planners. They happen upon an unattended machine and figure it will get them their fix for the week.

Re:Why do people steal laptops?

[kfg]

I have a sneaking suspicion it's because they want to take your stuff. Without, like, paying for it.

Now that you know their motivation perhaps you can do away with band-aid measures to prevent it, and then apply it to diamonds, money and TV sets so we can get rid of all of our alarms, locks and stuff.

Should be easy. It's surprising that nobody's done it already, innit?

KFG

Easy Money

[photonX]

Good. Maybe I can adapt one to go off when my wife picks up my wallet.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Funny story

[jargoone]

I went to a university that installed PCs in each dorm room. This was 6-8 years ago, so maybe it's more common now, but at the time it was pretty revolutionary and cool. Anyway, a friend-of-a-friend brought his own PC to school and decided he didn't want the university's PC cluttering up his room. So he unhooked it and took it to another friend's place, off campus (not with the intention to steal, just relocate for the year). This other friend had DSL. 15 minutes after putting it on the DSL connection, tne university police department was at the door.

In theory, I know why this could happen, and actually thought it was pretty funny because it was a stupid thing to do. But obviously, there was some sort of "call home" software. Anyone know for sure?

Re:Funny story

[The Snowman]

In theory, I know why this could happen, and actually thought it was pretty funny because it was a stupid thing to do. But obviously, there was some sort of "call home" software. Anyone know for sure?

I am curious how, 6-8 years ago, the university could convert an IP address into a physical address and get the campus rent-a-cops at the door in fifteen minutes. Even today it is not easy, especially with dynamic IPs.

Re:Funny story

[seann]

DSL 6-8 years ago?

huh?

Re:Funny story

[The Snowman]

DSL 6-8 years ago?

1996-1998. This is about when I started college the first time, and I distinctly remember DSL beginning to roll in out select areas. It was not nearly as common as it is today, but it existed. So did cable modems. 1996 may be a stretch, but definitely not 1998.

Either way, I am skeptical about a company being able to pinpoint a DSL IP address to a physical address in a few minutes, and call the campus police. At that time this was unheard of. A static IP on a controlled network, yes; a dynamic IP on someone else's network? Doubtful.

Re:Funny story

[hotwheel]

http://www.absolute.com - These guys have a bios based application called Computrace Plus. It performs the functions you described above.

A comp is plugged into any sort of web network after being reported stolen and it notifies the 'mothership'.

They even offer a data erase option that can wipe the drive of sensitive data if the computer has been stolen.

Re:Funny story

[The Snowman]

These guys have a bios based application called Computrace Plus. It performs the functions you described above.

Did it perform these functions back in 1996-1998? Looking at their web site I cannot tell for sure when they started up, but the time period the OP is talking about is pre-bubble. Not many tech companies were around back then.

Every urban legend...

[Concerned Onlooker]

...starts of with a friend-of-a-friend....

I doubt it happened. Besides, when have you seen campus police move that fast unless it's to ticket your illegally parked car?

The answer: SNMP

[MoreDruid]

set the SNMP traps to trigger on a different IP subnet and voila, you have your tracking. After that it's just doing a trace & lookup.

We use it on our WAN/LAN too, because we have a lot of WiFi spots in our network. There are a few machines that are allowed on all WiFi spots (IT-dept. machines mostly), the rest is closed off based on MAC address. If I get on the network on a remote site, a few bells & whistles go off at our central office.

I think that's the way they did it. It's simple & effecti

Illuminating...

[morganjharvey]

This finally explains why this thinkpad won't stop its incessant beeping.

Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft device

[Txiasaeia]

Is a huge freaking drawing on the top of the laptop. I used to have an old AST with a mushroom cloud and "DO IT!" written on it. You have *no* idea how easy it is to track down something like that. It's possible for a thief to sand down the paint and repaint the whole thing, but I figure it's just easier to get one where such work isn't required.

If a notebook alarm goes off, the computer's already gone, but a custom paint job is easy to track down, given police involvement and photographs. It works for me!

Re:Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft dev

[photonX]

Yes, I call that 'uglification'. It's a good trick to keep the staplers, tape dispensers, footstools, etc., from running off at work.

I wonder if it might be enough to stick a prominent "Protected by Brink's Security" sticker on the lid. Maybe glue an old beeper case on, with a push button that flashes a red LED. After all, the threat of deterrence is almost as good as deterrence itself.

Re:Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft dev

[The Snowman]

You have *no* idea how easy it is to track down something like that. It's possible for a thief to sand down the paint and repaint the whole thing, but I figure it's just easier to get one where such work isn't required.

Don't some types of engravers leave a permanent mark that shows up under a blacklight? I remember back in my high school days my school provided an engraver for our graphing calculators specifically because even if a thief sanded down our names, they would still show up under a blacklight

Re:Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft dev

[Anonymous Coward]

i know a few people that jack laptops. you are exactly right, nobody wants to jack some laptop with hard-to-remove unique identification. it just makes it a bitch to sell. people tend to think about preventing stealing in the wrong way. instead of 'what would make this harder to take' they should be thinking 'what would make this harder to sell'. because THAT is the only true deterrent to stealing.

Re:Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft dev

[Odin's Raven]

[my personal anti-theft device] Is a huge freaking drawing on the top of the laptop. I used to have an old AST with a mushroom cloud and "DO IT!" written on it.

You must have had a lot of fun taking that through airport security... :-)

Solution that needs a problem

[corian]

The POINT of a laptop is that it is portable; that you can bring it with you wherever you go.
Isn't it your desktop that is more likely to be stolen while you are away than the laptop right there in your messenger bag?

Let's just face the facts

[iswm]

If people would just pay more attention to their possesions and surroundings there wouldn't be a real big problem with this in the first place. Having an alarm will just give people an even more false sense of security, when inevetably, just like cars, the alarms will do little to stop theives.

GPS? Not yet, maybe just a matter of time

[dtio]

See LAPTOP SECURITY: PAST, PRESENT by Andrew Mueller (google's pdf cache [66.102.11.104]) which is a bit outdated but still very interesting:

In the end it comes down to the intelligence of the thief, the amount of computer experience they have, and the reason the laptop is stolen in the first place. The two reasons would be data recovery, the other to just sell the hardware. (I suppose a third would be to use it themselves).

The future of this technology I believe will be a BIOS based service. Something hard- coded in the BIOS that will be used to track the laptop. The car industry uses a GPS satellite to track some of its more expensive automobiles and perhaps that is where the laptop industry will go.

[..]

Systems hard coded with small GPS tracking units will creep into the corporate world, and users will be able to track where their laptops are if they?ve been stolen, and recovery will be more and more common.

A SERIOUS, EASY WAY TO DEFEAT...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

I've seen this done easily with motion detectors like this one all the time.

1) Slip Zip-Lock under and around alarm.

2) Poor some water into bag, just enough to cover alarm.

3) Enjoy laptop.

You would be surprised just how easyily a lot of electonics are defeated with water. Nice idea, but it needs to be made water proof/resistant.

Re:A SERIOUS, EASY WAY TO DEFEAT...

[glesga_kiss]

Wouldn't work with the defcon alarm I have. As soon as you move it, the beeping starts ramping to a very loud volume. You'd be as well hitting the device with a sledge hammer, it would be just as subtle.

Oh, and water isn't that deadly to solid-state electronics. Mains yes, batteries no. You might foul the detector (I'm guessing it's peizo) by changing it's resistance, but all that'll do is set it off. It'll take a while for water to kill most things, if at all. Rust will do it in before direct water damag

e-Lo Jack

[segment]

Its interesting to know no company has really done something like this already. In the US we have the Lo Jack system for tracking stolen cars, but a company would have to wonder whether someone would be willing to pay anything over 200.00 for a laptop that'll probably be worth that much in a few months judging by the insane prices of comp stuff.

Governments and companies might be interested in this stuff, but to the ordinary joe blow user I don't think it means much. I think most people would take care of their personal laptops much more than they would something they didn't pay for. Aside from that, one could probably do something with an RFID tag on their own with some success if they can find some way to get their RFID tag to interact with a GPS system.

Another alternative would be a good old fashioned mechanism of tracking down MAC addresses, which would be painful but that is already doable.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Old invention!!

[sysbot]

The idea and actual implementation of the device was done over 5 years ago by some students for the Duracell competition. I don't recall what is it's callled exactly but you can google for it.

Down in Africa

[BrookHarty]

Down in South Africa, They have car alarms that shoot flames and kill the thief.

Now my invention, car batteries attached to the laptop, of course it might be to heavy to steal, will have to work on that aspect...

Good idea for cars but...

[Zakabog]

...on a laptop it's really stupid. I have a lojack installed with something VERY similar to this. It's one of the best anti-theft devices I've ever had on any car. I have a little keychain that I keep with my keys and inside the car is a kind of transmitter. If the car is moving and the keychain is not present, lojack will call my cell phone, send me an e-mail (I receive e-mails on my phone) and call my house. I can add more contact methods (text messaging, more phone numbers, like work or something) but these are the easiest ways to contact me.

The good thing about this (and the bad thing about the laptop one) is if I'm using a car, it's going to be on and the keys are gonna be in it so the keychain is gonna be in the car. If I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'm going to park, turn off my car, take the keys out and go to the bathroom. Now if I'm using a laptop, and I want to go to the bathroom, I'm not going to carry the laptop with me (and if I was going to carry the laptop the device becomes completely pointless.)

This device is useless, if you're going to be 15 feet away from your laptop (ok my bedroom is 15 feet across, it's not very far) you should be able to see anyone going near it that's going to attempt to take it. And if they're going to snatch it up while you're that close this little alarm won't help since they're gonna run and not really care who hears the alarm (they could always just smash it off with their foot, I mean it just hangs off the side, it might crack the case of the laptop but who cares they just got a free laptop.)

Re:Good idea for cars but...

[Riggs E.]

...they could always just smash it off with their foot, I mean it just hangs off the side, it might crack the case of the laptop but who cares they just got a free laptop

I would think that trying to fence/resell a laptop with a broken case would be more difficult. At the very least, a thief would only get a couple hundred bucks for the risk.

---

Re:Good idea for cars but...

[jkbull]

No.

You misread the article in two critical respects that negate your criticisms. (At least you apparently did read the article, or at least skimmed it, which is unusual for Slashdot!)

(1) It consists of two pieces (look at the photo), one that attaches to the laptop (like the LoJack in your car), and one that you carry around (like your LoJack keychain). So when you walk away with the "keychain" in your pocket, the protection turns on automatically. Just like your LoJack.

(2) The protection is active

Re:Good idea for cars but...

[lseltzer]

I have the same Lojack device (it's called the "LoJack Early Warning Recovery System"). Had it about 6 months and I've had about 6 false alarms. I get phone calls at home, on my cell, and I get an e-mail.

Not very confidence-inspiring. So far I'd call it a waste of money.

Alarms, GPS, ???

[Riggs E.]

I've read more than a few of the posts degrading this particular technology. But let me ask those folks, how often do you leave your laptop and walk into the next room? I see this "invention" as a first-defense sort of thing. Sure, it would be made better by GPS tracking, blips on a PDA, and even a shiny new decoder ring. These things take time. Lest we not forget the ever-present business model, if this initial configuration takes off, GPS won't be far behind.

Re:Alarms, GPS, ???

[dandelion_wine]

But let me ask those folks, how often do you leave your laptop and walk into the next room?

Until Dell starts offering the catheter and colostomy bag options, quite often, actually.

good versus bad ideas

[quibbler]

This is what I consider one of those forehead-slapping-in-frustration type "inventions". Its the type that people come up with when they're trying to invent something. I won't go through all the layers of reasons why a laptop alarm is stupid. (A bunch of the comments already do a good job.)

Want a GOOD idea? Why not make a nice tiny USB fob with an alarm and a motion sensor. Stick it in, launch the app that comes with it (maybe include a 8mb flash disk with an app version for Win/Mac/Linux) and type your pa

Theft Protection Methods for Linux Laptops?

[wehe]

Almost all available theft protection methods for laptops seem not to be working with Linux. So I have setup a survey of theft protection methods, which work for Linux laptops and notebooks [tuxmobil.org]. I hope to extend the survey to protection methods for Linux PDAs [tuxmobil.org]and mobile (cellular) Linux phones [tuxmobil.org], too.

Hard disk security

[tronicum]

A laptop is a interesting part to steal as a video projector, a car or a nice watch.

More importent than the fact that you alert yourself "your PC is stolen, wakeup" is that your data is safe and can not be read by the thief.

Hard disc encryption (at least your homedir with your ssh keys, pgp key and other sensitive data) is more importent than a buzzing alert that gets turned off like car alarms....

Doesn't Fellowes already make one of these?

[Aryeh Goretsky]

Hello,

I saw a similar device for sale as Best Buy [bestbuy.com] from Fellowes [fellowes.com] called a Mobile Proximity Alarm. From looking at their web site it doesn't seem to have a motion detector, but sets of an alarm if the sensor is moved more than fifteen feet from the base. It cost about $30.00USD.

Obviously, it's hard to compare this against something which only exists in prototype form, but has anyone used one of these? If so, how well did it work?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

So don't use alarms. :>

[daTHoK]

Instead, use encrypted filesystem [google.com] technology linked with the sensoring these guys have already envisioned. Said filesystem (whether it's stand-alone or hosted by FAT32/Ext3/etc) would remain encrypted, and access to it is granted only when the user's fob is within range.

This removes the annoyance of an audible alarm, and requires a thief steal both the laptop AND the fob, assuming he/she knew a fob was even being used.

As an added bonus, if the fob is turned off, it ain't detected by the laptop. So the filesystem is now unusable. Combined with keyboard-based logins, this system would provide quite a bit of convenience.

Pretty cool stuff. I love seeing engineering students come up with new tech.

poor mans alarm

[mixmasterjake]

i've taken the opposite approach to alarms. if i have to leave the room, i just crank slayer on my laptop at full volume. when i hear the music begin to fade away, i know my laptop is being being stolen.

i call it my "proactive audio alarm system." maybe i should file a patent?

Good in an open office setting?

[kekoap]

I wonder if the inspiration for this is stolen laptops in a university setting. More generally, I wonder if this would work well in an open office setting where the public for whatever reason can easily gain access. I work in such a place, and laptops get stolen all the time from people who are lazy, don't lock up, step out "for just one second", and come back to their offices to find their laptops gone. There are usually people around, but nobody notices the theft. If the system is not prone to false p

Why not use mobile tracking?

[BJury]

Why bother with an audable alarm?

Install a mobile phone inside the unit, which obviously would give the machine an internal modem. Then use a mobile tracking servive to find out where the mobile is if it ever gets inched. http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,836456 2%255E13762,00.html

That and a decent bois lock and you should be safe!

Make the thief return it!!!

[Genda]

This is so simple...

You've got this sweet lil' notepad computer... when Mr. Thief put's stylus to display, the stylus explodes a dye capsule out the back covering Mr. Thief, and Mr. Thief's clothes with a pernitious and utterly permanent purple dye. Then the screen begins to flash;

Dear Mr. Thief,
You've just been sprayed with a powerful toxic dye. You have approximately 10 hours to report to the computer's true owner before it becomes too late to receive the antidote. You can reach the owner at; *PLACE YOUR PHONE NUMBER HERE*. You will then be given instructions on where to go, and how to get there. Your life depends on following these instructions exactly. This is what you get for being a waste of human DNA. I hope the rest of your day sucks too...

*The Original Owner of this Computer*
P.S. The computer better be in good condition when you arrive, or you won't be when you leave...

I mean with the rysin scare at the Senate, would you risk not getting in touch with the owner? Of course, you then contact the police, inform them you're running your own little sting operation, and make sure Mr. Thief is properly greeted as you get your computer back.

--Genda

A sign that reads "Steal Me"

[GerbilSocks]

That's right, put a bright yellow placard with big black letters on top of an open laptop's keyboard that says "Steal Me!". A thief would think twice about stealing it since he might feel it's a joke being played on him.

Fingerprint recognition

[Elusive_Cure]

I'm currently doing my Bachelors in electronics in a UK University, where final year EE students participate on the development of a fingerprint recognition device for mobile devices sponsored by one of the biggest cell phone companies (Sony-Ericsson). It's been done before for notebook computers (i believe siemens or Acer had a similar device), and we are working on the implementation of such device for mobile phones that are the most common things beeing stolen in the UK. The basic principle of this system is to match the pattern of the fingerprint of a person with the current stored fingerprint "image" of the owner on the phone. As soon as the microprocessor detects a false fingerprint image fed to the device, the phone locks up and idealy sends a sms to the service provider that the phone is beeing stolen. I, personally have worked on the FPGA implementation of the microcontroller, done with Verilog on Xilinx software and i'm confident that in the following years we will see lots of similar devices beeing manufactured for high-priced/valued products such as notebooks, phones, pdas etc.

These are already on the store shelves

[jridley]

I saw one at Best Buy 3 days ago. Two parts, one on the unit, one in your pocket, alarms if they're more than 15 feet apart. google for proximity alarm site:bestbuy.com - it's sold by Fellowes and costs $30.

Already there

[$exyNerdie]

For some reason, I thought that an alarm device (like a lock) was already in market where you attach the alarm device to the laptop and the other component you keep with yourself. If the distance between you and the laptop exceeds a certain range, the alarm would go off...

The other thing I remember reading a while ago is there is a company that sells this service where if you subscribe to it and if your computer gets stolen, they can track it by IP address and they actually caught someone where you just install their software that secretly pings their server when you get online. The thief didnt format the stolen laptop's hard disk and just started using it. The owner had informaed this company which then went with the IP address to police and these guys caught the thief...

i tested the prototype for these guys

[Robbat2]

As an SFU student and somebody that works on the SFU Surrey campus in research, I had the oppertunity to play with the actual prototype that these students put out.

I had my laptop secured with it, to test it out for a day.

Two things with it that I'd like to see rectified:
1. It seemed overly sensative to motions around it, a heavy truck went by outside (~6m away) and it went off.
2. if you use it, you do NOT have any way to cable-tie your laptop to a desk or whatever. yes it could be mutually exclusive, but I think these would be a lot more acceptance of this if you could use it in addition to another device to physically secure your laptop.

Re:I had a security lock...

[The Snowman]

It locked to the security cable but the plastic hook that the cable went into was busted off quite easily accidentally one time.

Any security system is as strong as its weakest link. I would not trust a plastic hook to keep it secure. Hell, I would not trust most metal pieces either. It better take a big pair of bold cutters and arms the size of my legs to break that steel.

Re:Sign me up

[Nogami_Saeko]

Well, there's probably some company in China that's already prototyped a cheap knockoff in the last day or two that'll be on the market in 2 weeks for $25 :)

As for the alarm side of things, instead of noise, I'd personally like a laptop security system that had a smokecloak-type system installed in it:

http://www.smokecloak.com

When the alarm goes off, it generates an enormous amount of smoke/fog from a liquid. Gets a LOT of attention and in a small room, would prevent anything else from being stolen.

I'd