News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 15, 2008

hardware

OS X Leopard: Theft proof…if you have Back to My Mac

Posted Apr. 15, ’08, 5:13 PM PT by Aaron Freedman
Category | Hardware
skitched-20080415-201002.jpgOne of the major downsides to having a Mac (yes, they do exist) is that they can be quite the theft magnets. This has led many people to get theft insurance and programs like Obicule’s Undercover to protect their precious investment. But, it tuns out you may not even need all of that as long as you have OS X Leopard and .Mac.

Such was the case for a woman in Santa Cruz, whose MacBook was stolen. But, determined not to let $1000+ of Apple-goodness to vanish into thin air, the woman teamed up with a friend to use the Back to My Mac feature with her .Mac account and Leopard-powered Mac to find her lost laptop.

With Back to My Mac, the woman was able to share the screen of her laptop when the thief was connected to a WiFi network and profile him, even taking pictures with Photo Booth, while at the same time removing sensitive data and changing her passwords. The work payed off because, within a couple of days, the woman had enough information to give a full profile of the thief, allowing the Santa Cruz police to start the process of issuing a warrant and subpoena.

While I still think that insurance is the safest way to go in the case of stolen laptops, .Mac and Leopard users may just feel a little safer knowing that Back to My Mac is on their side. [via RoughlyDrafted Magazine]

3 Comments

krye said:

OK, so all you thieves out there, make sure you do a fresh install of Leopard when you steal someone's Mac.

April 16, 2008 5:39 AM
Tony D said:

wouldn't be cool if we could set our laptops to "self destruct" when stolen?

April 16, 2008 11:01 AM
Archimedix said:

I wonder how a thief can use the computer at all and have your own pre-installed Mac OS running (such that Back to My Mac or Undercover work) without doing a fresh install if you secure your computer properly...

If your Mac does not ask for a password or has an intentional honeypot account, anyone can use such an account to grab all of your precious data or maybe sneak malicious programs into your system anytime without stealing it.

Choose your poison ?

April 16, 2008 11:55 AM

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