[Noisebridge-discuss] tracking software for missing laptops / androids

[Jake]

while turning my laptop into a paperweight would punish a potential thief, 
i think that theives probably throw lots of valuable things in the trash 
and move onto the next theft, so it wouldn't affect anything.  At least if 
it still worked, the thief would sell it to some lucky kid who would get a 
nice laptop for a decent price.

however, if i wanted to meet that lucky kid even IF the hard drive had 
been replaced, i would do the following:

install a USB key inside the computer, wired to a spare USB port in there 
(or to an actual external port if necessary, or add a tiny hub inside)

make that USB key read-only somehow (if possible - may not be possible)

put tracking software on that key in the form of a windows virus with 
autorun.inf, or mac executable with an enticing name.

eventually, even after a fresh install, the user is bound to click on it 
(or windows will install it automagically) and you're tracking again.

-jake

ps anyone know a hardware-switchable read-only USB key?

Chrysanthemum Hyphus wrote:

One of the nice things about Prey is that it runs on Mac, Windows, and 
Linux. I have it on my Mac desktop and Windows & Linux dual boot laptop 
under both OSs and it works great. One weakness of software-only tracking 
on at least some machines (and my laptop in particular) is that despite 
having a password on the BIOS, it is still possible to override the boot 
order, which I would prefer to have set to always boot from the hard drive 
first (or even better, *only*) unless a password is entered. Thus someone 
could still boot it up initially with an OS install DVD and wipe it clean 
before Prey or anything else ever got to run.

Of course it's still worth installing something like this since most 
people aren't that savvy.

Has anyone found a way to replace a BIOS with one that would make a laptop 
into a paperweight without a password even if the boot hard drive were 
replaced? It'd be nice if it were *impossible* to make my computer 
function other than the way I want it to without a very long password like 
those at https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm.

-Chrysanthemum