Laptop Stolen-But Logon has password

[jkpaz]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will this
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

 

[eljainc]

It might. It depends on how skillful the person is that accesses your
PC. Was this XP home or Professional? If it was professional, I
think that the files can be encrypted. Did you have any encryption on
this hard drive?

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Somewhat.

 

[R. McCarty]

No, only some form of drive encryption will prevent access.
Login passwords are just a hindrance to anyone who steals
a notebook. They likely know all the tricks to accessing the PC.

It's likely the thief is more interested in reselling the notebook
than trying to access your data. If any secure accounts have
passwords stored ( Banks, Credit Cards ) you'll need to call
each and inform them of the theft. A police report is a valid
way to initiate Fraud alerts on your 4 Credit reports without
having to pay any fee.

 

[BillW50]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will
this
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

No! It is easy to bypass. Although if they are not too bright, they will
logon with your email or IM or something. Then the server will have
their IP address and you can find out who has it.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will this
prevent access to my files?

If the thief, and everyone he works with, is a technical beginner,
yes.

Otherwise, no.

So, for all practical purposes, the answer is no.

 

[VanguardLH]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will this
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

You think the thief doesn't know how to Google on "+windows +crack
+password"?

 

[Jose]

My laptop was stolen today.  The logon is 'password protected'.  Willthis
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

Where was this?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'.
Will this prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.

No.

Doubtful they care about your files unless they are stealing identities or
you have some important information and they know/stumble upon this.

The answer could be 'maybe' - if you used file/folder/disk encryption.

But in general - no.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

You think the thief doesn't know how to Google on "+windows +crack
+password"?

Moreover he could boot from a non-Windows CD and access the files. Or
he could remove the hard drive and install it in another computer and
access the files from there.

As I said, only a beginner couldn't do it.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will this
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

No, not at all. Without physical security, there is no security. It'd
take less than 5 minutes for anyone with physical access to the
computer, a small amount of knowledge, and any of the dozens of
Linux-based password cracking tools that are freely available to anyone
who can use Google.

File Encryption would stop a rank amateur from accessing your
files, but only delay a professional who stole the laptop with the goal
of getting at your data. Encryption is helpful, but none is 100% iron-clad.

If you have data that you absolutely cannot afford to have accessed,
never store it on the laptop's internal drive.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Mark Adams]

My laptop was stolen today. The logon is 'password protected'. Will this
prevent access to my files?
Thanks for all help.
jk

Nope.

 

[VanguardLH]

Moreover he could boot from a non-Windows CD and access the files. Or
he could remove the hard drive and install it in another computer and
access the files from there.

As I said, only a beginner couldn't do it.

Wouldn't even need to take the hard disk to another host. He could
could even reuse the same hard disk. Just boot using a partitioning
utility, resize the original OS partition (to make it smaller), create a
new partition from the freed space, install Windows over there, logon as
an admin user in the new instance of Windows, and then as administrator
take ownership of the files in the partition with the prior instance of
Windows.

Even beginners can ask here on how to do it, including those that
pretend to have lost their laptops or suddenly forgotten their password.

 

[sgopus]

anyone with physical access to the pc, can bypass password protection.

 

[Tim Rude]

You might get lucky and the thief will take it to a computer repair shop to
get his "forgotten password" removed.

We had a guy bring a laptop to the shop the other day with that story. Told
him to leave it with us and we'd call when ready. Poked through the files
and found info on the real owner. Called him and confirmed that the laptop
was indeed stolen 4 days prior. Police came. Owner got his laptop back.
Thief got squat.

Owner didn't press charges so all the thief got was a good chewing out when
he called me to see if the laptop was ready to pick up.

Call the local computer shops and ask them to be on the lookout for your
laptop, in case your thief is as clueless as the one we dealt with. Be sure
to report to police too.

 

[Tim Rude]

While I laud your efforts at snubbing a thief (alas not in his capture
since the owner didn't press charges), I have to wonder if you legally
had the right to invade privacy by rummaging through files which were
obviously NOT part of what you were contracted to perform.

If I were to give my computer over to a shop to, say, replace a
defective part, like the PSU, I certainly am not signing over to them
the right that they go digging into my files. Giving access to your
property still have assigned rights as to what the other party can do
with your property. When I invite friends over to my house, I don't
expect nor want them to go powering up my computer to read my files,
rummage through my file cabinets, break open lockboxes, poke into my
wallet on the dresser. Just because I invite them over for dinner
doesn't give them license to practice forensic investigation on my
property.

When someone signs a work order with you, does the contract displayed on
that work order actually permit you to rummage through the user's files
or to do anything outside just whatever actions you were contracted to
perform? If so, you saved your butt. If not, a licentious user could
make big trouble for you.

I'm not promoting theft. I'm concerned that your service contract might
not permit you to invade the user's privacy without their overt consent.
Unless stated in the contract they sign with you, them asking you to
replace memory modules (to increase physical RAM) is not permission for
you to dig into the files on their hard disk. If I hired someone to
repair a broken leg on an old rolldesk, I'm not giving them permission
to read any papers left inside. Yes, there's the practicality aspect
that you are handing your property over to someone else but the legal
aspect doesn't care other than what was covered (implicitly or
explicitly) by the contract for service. Hopefully your actions are
covered in the terms of the contract or work order that the customer
must sign. You need to cover your legal butt.

In this case, the name on the only user account on the laptop clearly did
not match the name of the individual who claimed the laptop was his. Without
looking at the contents of any file, I noticed that the save date of the
most recent documents was within the last week, and that documents dated
back approximately 2 years. Given that the story sounded 'hinky' and it
seemed highly unlikely that someone who had used the laptop for 2 years up
until a week ago would suddenly forget his password, we called the customer
and asked more questions. He stated that his 'uncle' had given him the
laptop, and provided a name and phone number for this person. The 'uncle'
said that it had been his wife's laptop and thus he didn't know the
password. However the name on the user account was male and didn't match the
'uncle' or his wife, and a Google search of that name (it was quite a
distinct name) turned up information about the real owner and where he
worked (a college professor in our town). We called the college, the campus
police confirmed that the laptop had been reported stolen, and the professor
got back his property with his privacy intact.

I didn't invade the user's privacy. The idiot who brought in the laptop
contracted with us to unlock it because he wasn't smart enough to do it
himself. Part of unlocking it is determining the user account name and that
in itself was enough to make the story seem highly suspicious.

I hope that if your thief is stupid enough to take your laptop to a
reputable shop to unlock it, someone there will have enough common sense to
think about the story he tells and maybe you'll see your stuff again. Or
they might be so worried about a licentious customer that they just close
their eyes, do the work, collect their pittance, and your laptop will be
gone forever.

 

[BillW50]

In Tim Rude typed on Mon, 9 Nov 2009 15:19:36 -0600:

... and a Google search of that name (it was quite a distinct name)
turned up information about the real owner and where he worked (a
college professor in our town). We called the college, the campus
police confirmed that the laptop had been reported stolen, and the
professor got back his property with his privacy intact.

Did the professor pay a reward? Or did he just say thanks?

 

[Tim Rude]

In Tim Rude typed on Mon, 9 Nov 2009 15:19:36 -0600:

Did the professor pay a reward? Or did he just say thanks?

Unfortunately, just a thanks. We should have charged the guy who brought the
laptop in advance. But as it was we ended up with nothing out of the deal
except the satisfaction of doing the right thing.

 

[BillW50]

In Tim Rude typed on Mon, 9 Nov 2009 16:47:02 -0600:

Unfortunately, just a thanks. We should have charged the guy who
brought the laptop in advance. But as it was we ended up with nothing
out of the deal except the satisfaction of doing the right thing.

Gee if it was my stolen laptop, I surely would have gladly paid a reward
for your trouble. You would think a professor would have more sense than
that. :-(