It would appear stealing laptop computers has become an industry that pays rich dividends to the thieves in Zimbabwe as research shows that 93 percent of stolen laptops are never recovered while one in every 14 laptops gets stolen and apparently 70 percent of laptop thefts consists of an inside job.
Shocking statistics by any measure of imagination and this trend may continue looking at the way people are buying laptops in Zimbabwe. It is commendable that the government scrapped duty on ITC equipment which plays a critical role in empowering the modern Zimbabwean.
Laptop theft is a significant threat to users of laptop computers. Many methods to protect the data and to prevent theft have been developed, including alarms, laptop locks, and visual deterrents such as stickers or labels.
Victims can lose hardware, software, and essential data that has not been backed up. Thieves also may have access to sensitive data and personal information. Some systems authorise access based on credentials stored on the laptop including MAC addresses, web cookies, cryptographic keys and stored passwords.
Passwords are no longer adequate to protect laptops. There are many solutions that can improve the strength of a laptop's protection. Full disk encryption (FDE) is an increasingly popular and cost-effective approach. Full disk encryption can be taken on from a software-based approach, a hardware-based approach, or both - end-based approach.
FDE provides protection before the operating system starts up with pre-boot authentication; however precautions still need to be taken against cold boot attacks.
A number of computer security measures have emerged that aim at protecting data.
Increase in Laptop sales and users have led to high incidents of theft. What is lost is not just the laptop, but also valuable, sensitive and creative information in it. Open Source software is now available online like Ubuntu Prey.
With the growing ubiquity of, and user reliance on, mobile computing devices (laptops, PDAs, smart phones, etc.), loss or theft of a device is increasingly likely, disruptive, and costly. Internet-based tracking systems provide a method for mitigating this risk.
These tracking systems send, over the Internet, updates regarding the current location of the device to a remotely administered repository. If the device is lost or stolen, but maintains Internet connectivity and unmodified software, the tracking system can keep tabs on the current whereabouts of the device. This data could prove invaluable when the appropriate authorities attempt to recover the device.
Unfortunately, with current proprietary tracking systems users sacrifice location privacy. Indeed, even while the device is still in the rightful owner's possession, the tracking system is keeping tabs on the locations it (and its owner) visits. Even worse, with some commercial products, even outsiders (parties not affiliated with the tracking provider) can "piggy-back" on the tracking system's Internet traffic to uncover a mobile device user's private information and/or locations visited.
Locally, though, a commercial alternative run by Electronic Systems, Inc supported by Net Trace (South Africa) and Computrace® One™, a computer tracking software developed by Absolute® Software Corporation (Canada) track, secure and recover computing assets when they get stolen.
Tawanda Chikosi, the company’s Business Development Manager, said Electronic Systems, Inc utilises the patented Computrace® Technology Platform designed and developed by a listed Canadian company Absolute® Software Corporation.
Through Absolute's strategic partnerships with all leading computer manufacturers in the world (HP, DELL, TOSHIBA, ACER, FUJITSU, LENOVO among others), a Computer Tracking Agent is embedded in the motherboard of the computers whilst they are still being made at their respective factories.
“The Agent, built into the BIOS of the computers is incredibly persistent meaning it cannot be removed and allows your computers to maintain a connection with the Absolute Monitoring Centre. BIOS persistence is the most comprehensive option, defeating virtually every action that could remove the Tracking Agent from the laptop including if the BIOS is flashed, if the laptop is reimaged, or if the hard drive is replaced,” said Mr Chikosi.
He said the idea of embedding the tracking hardware in the BIOS of the computer is to ensure that it becomes persistent. The software we install activates the tracker in the BIOS to start communicating with The Absolute Monitoring Centre.
“As the world’s only persistent computer configuration product, the Tracking agent will be automatically reinstalled if the Computrace Application Agent detects that it is missing, allowing our customers to maintain control over all of the laptops in their deployment,” said Mr Chikosi.
He said once we activate the Agent, the laptop sends a signal to our Monitoring Centre once everyday– In the event of loss or theft, it starts communicating with our Monitoring Centre every fifteen minutes. The first thing that we get from the stolen computer is the IP address from which the computer is connecting to the internet from. The next time your lost or stolen computer has any kind of Internet access, it will send a new message.
“Once that new message is sent, an Absolute theft recovery technician will extract the IP address (the address on the Internet from which the message was sent) from the email and determine the Internet Service Provider that assigned that IP address,” said Mr Chikosi.
Every computer connected to the Internet has its own Internet address called an “IP Address.” An IP Address is a set of four numbers separated by 3 decimals. (i.e., 255.255.255.255) Every ISP (Internet Service Provider) controls a group of IP Addresses that it, in turn, assigns to its customers.
He added that when a person using a stolen computer logs on to their email account with whatever email client (Gmail, Yahoo, even work email accounts), the intelligent tracking agent sends us the account details that the person slotted in when they were opening that email account. It sends this information through a stealth and independent email client so as to ensure that the user is oblivious of what is happening. We also get the email accounts with which you the person will be communicating with. This is one of the primary methods we use to identify the user of the stolen laptop.
“The same happens when the person logs of to over 150 social networks such as Facebook, My space and Youtube. If the stolen laptop has a web camera, the tracking agent will take control of the camera and take a photo shot of the user and sends it to us, allowing us to have concrete intelligence about the user. If the computer is GPS enabled, as with all latest laptops, we will start tracking it before it even connects to the internet. We will be tracking it via GPS satellites and we will be seeing it on a Google map as it moves,” said Mr Chikosi.
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