Since we should now be ready to go on vacation, after indicating the best online services to find, around the world, free wifi hotspots for wireless internet connection and after giving advice in connecting using free access points or public PCs of an internet point, we see here how to put an anti-theft device on your laptop or USB stick, on a mobile phone or an IPod or IPhone and how they can be found and located on the geographical map . These indications can also be useful in the daily life for consultants, professionals and students who often go around with the laptop behind their back.
When going around with a laptop, you must always be on guard, always keep it with you and never abandon it as it is easy to steal, convenient to hide and of high economic value.
In addition to this, a lot of private information can be stored on a computer, important documents that you do not want to disclose around and certainly photos of yourself with your family or friends who, in the wrong hands, could bring anxieties and worse problems than when the wallet or house keys are stolen.
First of all, you can protect files and folders with passwords.
To protect your PC from thieves, you could set an audible alarm that acts as a classic anti-theft device, weak but better than nothing.
1) Alarm is a portable application that activates when the power supply plug is disconnected.
2) A useful program to act as a preventive theft but which also allows you to implement emergency actions after a theft, is LaptopLock .
LaptopLock is capable of destroying or encrypting data, or performing deeper actions.
The program is based on a signal that can be sent when it connects to the internet from anywhere in the world.
The self-destruction itself can be activated automatically when the thief cannot find the access password after a certain pre-configured period of time.
LaptopLock is free, works only on Windows and is configured like this:
You must register on the site, also indicating your laptop, giving it a name at will, to which a unique number is assigned by the site.
Then, on the laptop you can download and install the LaptopLock agent software and connect the pc to the previously created online account.
Among the actions, you can choose whether to enter a password to access the software.
From the administration interface you can set a period of time where, if the system does not connect to the internet and the user cannot provide the password, this acting in the background will protect the stored data making them no longer readable .
The program acts without showing up, therefore a thief would not notice this security system.
On the Security tab, you can configure and manage the action plan in case of theft.
The options available include the deletion and encryption of data which can then be recovered with the recovery options, but only if it is recognized by the program.
After the laptop has been stolen, you can go back to the Laptoplocker website, access your profile and report the theft .
If that computer will be used on the internet, Laptoplocker, thanks to the agent installed, will provide the last ten location locations of the laptop on a geographic map .
This is probably not as accurate as if it were a GPS but it could be a good start to start an investigation and to report the thieves to the police with a few more clues.
3) Another excellent anti-theft program for laptops is Lalarm which sounds a siren in case the computer is disconnected, without permission, from the power cable.
Not only that, the alarm can sound even if the PC is moved from where it is located (it must be hooked up to a network and if it is no longer detected, it clicks), it allows the sending of an sms or an email in the case of theft and computer data self-destruct.
Everything is obviously configurable on a case-by-case basis.
Beyond a classic burglar alarm, remaining on the subject of localization, one can theoretically find a laptop that has been stolen, when it is used to surf the internet using another free and specific program.
1) Of the best free program to find the stolen laptop, Prey, for Windows Linux and Mac, I wrote in another article.
2) LocatePC is a small free application for Windows that acts in the background, in a hidden way, which does nothing but check, at every internet access, the IP assigned in the network and, when it detects a change, automatically sends an email to property, reporting it.
This means that, if I usually use the laptop at home, most likely, when I connect to the internet, I go out on the internet with the same ip address; if I also use it at work, the program will warn me that the IP has changed.
If, on the other hand, my laptop is stolen and I no longer know where it can be, when I receive an email from Locatepc, then I can also go back to the geographical place where it is located and where it was used.
After downloading and installing it, you go through a simple configuration panel where you must indicate your email address, a mail server (each mail has its own server and you just have to go to the site to find that address that can be of the type smtp .yahoo.it or smtp.gmail.com) and the message you want to receive in the event of theft, in which it is convenient to mark the data of the pc, name, model, serial number and so on.
The configuration interface can be viewed and changed by pressing the Alt-Shift-Home keys with the program running and there is no other way because, in fact, this is hidden.
The program can be tested by virtually changing your ip by following the articles to surf anonymously or to hide the real ip and use a fake one.
3) LockItTight is a program to identify the location and use of the lost or stolen postile if it connects to the internet.
The program must be installed in advance on a PC which then works in a very similar way to Prey (the first), with regular checks and capture of desktop images.
Unlike Prey, the LockitTight program can be used for free in a more limited version.
By using one of the services indicated in the post on how to locate a computer from its IP, you can understand the geographical area in which it is used and connected even if not the precise point.
Obviously the program must go into execution when the computer starts, otherwise, if it were not active, it will do nothing.
It is also clear that if the thief formats the PC or starts it with a live CD, any program, both LaptopLock and LocatePC, will not be able to work.
The only solution to permanently protect a PC is to set a bios password (here how to access bios for all computers).
Another ideal anti-theft protection would be to use a USB stick as the ignition key of the computer in the same way that to turn on a car, you need the key.
Basically it would be a matter of having to insert the USB stick before turning on the computer, otherwise nothing would start.
This would be feasible by copying the boot files on the stick but it would also be risky and easily circumvented with the usual live cd.
(To know more about live CDs you can read how to create a Windows one or how to use Linux from USB or CD).
For MAC you can use MacKeeper, a webcam-based program that lets you activate it remotely.
Other anti-theft programs and professional, paid solutions, which also allow, I think, remote data recovery with synchronization is offered by the NomaDesk website.
Finally, but I only launch an idea that is still difficult to implement, as protection against computer thieves and theft of laptop computers, you could use, but I can not give links, a Reverse Connect Trojan that is a real virus that serves to control PCs remotely in all respects. Indeed, if the laptop is equipped with a webcam, it may be able to activate it and send the signal in streaming, without the thief noticing. Anti-theft for a laptop and usb sticks that locates the stolen computer and locks it As you can guess, installing a trojan on your pc is not a safe thing and you must be very capable and expert to isolate it from antivirus and make sure that it cannot be used versus.
For USB sticks, in another post we have indicated how to protect the important data that are stored there with a program called VeraCrypt that makes all encrypted data unreadable.
On Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10 there is also Bitlocker a protection for hard drives and USB sticks.
What can we say ... we hope not to need it but to prevent and to know that we can make an anti-theft also for computers is an important thing to share.
