Comments on: Today My Laptop Was Stolen, I Ask for Your Help

By: MadAsHell

MadAsHell — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:55:22 +0000

I got my MacBook Pro stolen as well two nights ago and I can see the guy accessing the internet via a Sprint Data USB card because I have LogMeIn installed on it. I can get his IP address but it is a pool of IPs that Sprint has.

I could remotely control the laptop via LogMeIn but it flashes a little message box up on the remote computer screen that tells them that it is being remotely controlled by a different machine.

Any ideas?

By: Sumo Backup

Sumo Backup — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:54:51 +0000

Man, that really grinds my gears. I’ve had a laptop stolen too, and it’s just infuriating.

The sad thing is that it probably for fenced and formatted within minutes of being stolen. Gone for good…

But we can always hope for a miracle.

In the meantime, I hope that this little cartoon we made cheers you up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumobackup/3489049318/

All the best, and I hope you find your machine.

By: Doc

Doc — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:11:07 +0000

any updates Dan ?

By: kaz

kaz — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:31:05 +0000

Why do you have to change a million passwords? I mean, to look into your keychain passwords, the guy need to know your password, isn’t it? Even Firefox password are secure if you set a master password.

The computer wasn’t shut down or in sleep mode with password requirement on wake up active? To me, that’s already a big step. If the guy can’t start the computer, he’s gonna reinstall it, not trying to read the data out of it. If you have the firmware passoword set, the thieve can’t even start your computer in target disk mode, and has to open it. No thieve is going to beak open and risk to damage the computer, just for some hypothetical data.

For the paranoids among us, having filevault active is really useful for such cases. Then you don’t need to worry about your data (provided, your computer is password-locked). I’m using Espionage, a really neat encryption tool, since Filevault has some bugs which I can’t live with (Time Machine backup only when logged out, all default extension/applications associations reset at each reboot…).

But as I said, that’s really because I’m paranoid about my data. My passwords are safe anyway just because I never leave my computer without being password locked.

Maybe I should have posted this below your post “how do you protect your data?”…

By: Nancy

Nancy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:19:06 +0000

so sorry to hear that..

My Macbook Pro was stolen last 2 days too. T_T

I got the IP address of the theft, but seems like police can’t help. Call the ISP, but got nothing. I am finding my way to get those thefts in Jail…

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:54:58 +0000

I don’t like really leaving SSH open… I’m protected DMG’s all the way with auto timed passwords.

By: Chad

Chad — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:38:04 +0000

this makes me want to get a dyndns client up and running on my macbook pro. At least then I could try to get to it via SSH and gather data on the thief or make the laptop a brick and clear out my private data.

Dan you’ve inspired me sir… sorry you book got stolen… but I have to point out the irony.

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/11/8288/

consider it tough love.

By: Ronald Poi

Ronald Poi — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:17:03 +0000

I work on an Apple Authorized Service Provider on Lima, Perú. If the computer ever reaches Peru and my service center, I’ll know its yours… Sad thing… is the only thing I could say =(

Hope you can find it. And in the rare situation that in fact it comes to Peru, I’ll let you know. Maybe you can recover it.

By: Doc

Doc — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:44:58 +0000

Engadget story about those intel SSD. They fragment and really slow down after heavy use. Only way to fix is a complete wipe of the drive!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/19/intel-x25-m-ssds-slowing-down-with-extensive-use/

By: HZC

HZC — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:00:31 +0000

I take it then that you didn’t have your MobileMe Back-to-my-Mac feature enabled? I know that this could be a longshot, but if it is enabled, you should be able to get the IP address of the computer (or DSL modem, etc.) via Back-to-my-Mac:

echo “show State:/Network/BackToMyMac” | scutil
(http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7412235)

Other links:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/11/stolen-laptop-recovered-with-back-to-my-mac/
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/17/iphone-thief-thwarted-by-mobileme-sync/