reproduced under fair-use:
PC, phone home
Industry aims to stop theft of laptops
June 10, 1997 Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT)
From Correspondent Greg Lefevre
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Expensive, compact and frequently out and about, a laptop computer makes an
attractive
target for thieves.
But the computer industry has devised some ingenious
ways to
counter theft, including invisible software that
knows when the
computer is in trouble.
"As soon as the thief plugs that machine into a phone
network, it
will phone home," said John Livingston, chief
executive of
CompuTrace Service.
The call goes to a Canadian office that in turn phones the cops. So far, it has a 100 percent recovery rate.
====== 100% of WHAT? Systems with it installed which are stolen? How would you know what systems do NOT call in? It's like the question the clerk asks at the airport: "Did anyone put anything in your luggage you don't know anything about?" Now that the word is out, of course, the wily thief will eschew pluggin in until the hard drive is reformatted and installed with a clean OS. As usual: the stupid will be caught.