Management software speeds recovery of stolen notebook

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 22 December 2009 07:32

IT Industry - Market

We've all heard of software that's designed to help track stolen notebooks. But the remote management software you're already using may be able to do the same job at no extra cost.

In late November, a 'break and enter' at a home in Western Australia resulted in a company CEO's notebook being stolen. That's not the sort of thing you want to lose.

The company concerned was a client of Fremantle-based Ocean IT, which uses Kaseya's software to manage its customers' fleets.

When the customer reported the theft, Ocean IT - with some help from Kaseya - pushed out some scripts that were automatically loaded onto the stolen computer as soon as it was connected to the Internet.

The software was able to record the times that the notebook was online, and IP addresses it used. This allowed the police to obtain information about the account being used from the ISP concerned.

The scripts running on the notebook used the built-in webcam to take a photo of the person at the keyboard and upload it to Ocean IT's server, along with screen captures taken three times a minute.

A Facebook page, an account with a particular financial institution, emails, and MSN conversations (including attempts to sell the stolen computer) were all visible, providing police with even more details.