Re: LACC: PC Phones Home?

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

(This came to me via the Cypherpunks list, and was addressed to
"lacc@suburbia.net". I have no idea who that is, or how it got to the CP
list...probably another local reflector of the list, of which we seem to be
getting more and more every day. Very confusing. I am removing these from
the distribution list...if they get it, they get it.)

At 2:28 PM 3/13/96, D. C. Hilliard wrote:
>Listers,
>
>I came across a blurb in the local paper today and was interested if
>someone here could provide some substance to the story:
>
>"Software to the rescue:
>If somoeone steals your PC, you may be able to get it back because of
>software that acts as a kind of tracking device. Home Office Computing
>magazine reports that the software CompuTrace TRS will automatically dial
>the office of its creator, Absolute Software, if a thief hooks up a stolen
>PC's modem to a phone line. The software reveals the location of the PC and
>Absolute Software will call the police" - Providence Journal-Bulletin -
>March 12, 1996.
>
>Any Comments?

Thanks for the pointer. I found more info via Alta Vista, including a more
detailed press release (http://199.125.99.5/vpr/vpr/000246.htm).

It looks "cypherpunkly correct" to me. No mandatory aspects and no
privacy-limiting aspects. It calls the CompuTrace number weekly, and this
could in principle help to track a mobile (laptop) user. But the
arrangement is voluntary, and of course the owner knows about it and hence
is not being tricked.

(Slightly more worrisome might be corporate-owned laptops, with the program
used to track where employees are making use of the laptop. However, two
things mitigate against this. First, CompuTrace only makes a trace of the
call if the laptop is reported stolen (though this arrangement could be
modified by the corporate owner). Second, the weekly call is a poor
granularity for tracking (though this, too, could be modified). Lastly, the
owner of the laptop can do with his property what he wishes, as I see it.)

I would think that a knowledgeable thief could disable such software, even
if it is fairly cleverly hidden. But a typical thief would not. But then a
typical thief merely stockpiles the things he steals and is unlikely in the
extreme to actually try to use the PC he has stolen.

The likeliest scenario is that the stolen machine is sold to someone at a
flea market, or through classified ads in the paper, or as part of a bulk
sale to a company seeking cheap computers. It is this user who is likely to
get nabbed.

(And then they'll have to return the computer as stolen property and tell
what they know about who sold it to them. Sounds fair to me.)

--Tim May


Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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