Somebody Stole My Laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter marco
  • Start date Start date
DanS said:
I'm not sure if I follow now either. The encryption you speak of is an
intrinsic Windows encryption routine correct ?

The assumption is that the encryption is based on the Windows login. So
if you login using your username/password, your encrypted data is
available to you. If a different user logs in on the same PC with a
different username/password, your encrypted data is NOT available to
them.......is that correct ?

If so, it is then based on the Windows login credentials. The password
reset bootdisk I mentioned is just that.....

1. You boot your PC with this disk, a mini-linux image.
2. It lists all PC username accounts.
3. You choose an account to change the password for, any account, even
the built-in Administrator account, WITHOUT HAVING TO KNOW THE ORIGINAL
PASSWORD!!!!
4. Write changes.
5. Remove the CD, reboot to Windows, logon using the username/new
password.

Is the encryption certificate still valid ? If so, then whomever just did
that routine now has full access to your files.

That is, unless changing your password while in Windows, the 'right' way,
forces Windows to generates a new encryption certificate based on the
username and newly entered password.
Click to expand...

No, I use 3rd party encryption software.
Depending on the OS I use either Compusec (which is free in XP & Linux)
http://www.ce-infosys.com/english/downloads/free_compusec/index.html , PGP
WDE www.pgp.com or Bestcrypt FVE www.jetico.com
There are others available but in all the testing I have done, these are the
best IMO.

Safeguard Easy used to be good, but I haven't used it in years.

All of these require authentication before the OS boots so cannot be
bypassed.
 
Isaac Hunt said:
No, I use 3rd party encryption software.
Depending on the OS I use either Compusec (which is free in XP & Linux)
http://www.ce-infosys.com/english/downloads/free_compusec/index.html , PGP
WDE www.pgp.com or Bestcrypt FVE www.jetico.com
There are others available but in all the testing I have done, these are
the best IMO.

Safeguard Easy used to be good, but I haven't used it in years.

All of these require authentication before the OS boots so cannot be
bypassed.
Click to expand...

Your previous vague comment have only just now made any sense and are
therefore irrelevant to the point I made.

ss.
 
Its just me, I'm paranoid, never been robbed, but its better to be safe than
sorry.
 
It can happen just about anytime, anywhere. Five years ago, my daughter and
I were having dinner at a well-known restaurant chain. I had parked right
next to the building. When we came out, it was dark and raining. I hit the
unlock button as we approached the car, opened the door and jumped in to get
out of the rain. I heard my daughter scream. The interior light had come on
and when I looked up, I saw that I was looking at my daughter through jagged
glass. I was sitting in glass. There was window glass everywhere and my
purse, which had been in the floorboard of the front passenger seat, was
gone. We were parked _right_next_to_the_building.

They got my PDA. They got my pager. They got everything that was in my purse
EXCEPT, thank you, my wallet and my cell phone, which I had taken with me. A
few months later, I get a bill from an internet company. The thieves had
used my pager to set up an account. Leaving out a lot of identity theft
details, I can tell you, you can be ripped off anytime, anywhere ... vanilla

Andre Da Costa said:
Its just me, I'm paranoid, never been robbed, but its better to be safe
than sorry.
Click to expand...
 
If it's a Toshiba you can inform them about the theft and give them the
serial number etc -- they have a form to fill in -- then if it comes in
for service it will be flagged as stolen and you might get it back.

I think you have to have reported it to the police etc.

If it's not a Toshiba it may be worth checking with the manufacturer to
see if they have a similar system.
 
Had a similar experience with my father couple years ago. Leaving his Office
we went into the parking lot, I found it strange that his car door just
opened, knowing he would lock it with the key. Only to discover the glove
compartment, a mess, papers on the car floor and all his CD's and firearm
license stolen. Like you said, we live in a society where anything can
happen, a lot of people just don't have the decency and concience to do
whats right.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry
vanilla said:
It can happen just about anytime, anywhere. Five years ago, my daughter
and I were having dinner at a well-known restaurant chain. I had parked
right next to the building. When we came out, it was dark and raining. I
hit the unlock button as we approached the car, opened the door and jumped
in to get out of the rain. I heard my daughter scream. The interior light
had come on and when I looked up, I saw that I was looking at my daughter
through jagged glass. I was sitting in glass. There was window glass
everywhere and my purse, which had been in the floorboard of the front
passenger seat, was gone. We were parked _right_next_to_the_building.

They got my PDA. They got my pager. They got everything that was in my
purse EXCEPT, thank you, my wallet and my cell phone, which I had taken
with me. A few months later, I get a bill from an internet company. The
thieves had used my pager to set up an account. Leaving out a lot of
identity theft details, I can tell you, you can be ripped off anytime,
anywhere ... vanilla
Click to expand...
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
Your previous vague comment have only just now made any sense and are
therefore irrelevant to the point I made.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, you made some ridiculous comment about "always disable CD-ROM,
USB and floppy boot in the
startup sequence, and password protect the BIOS as well" like that will stop
anyone from installing the laptop disk as slave & accessing all personal
information.

Your suggestion is crap.
 
Isaac Hunt said:
Yes it does, you made some ridiculous comment about "always disable
CD-ROM, USB and floppy boot in the
startup sequence, and password protect the BIOS as well" like that will
stop anyone from installing the laptop disk as slave & accessing all
personal information.

Your suggestion is crap.
Click to expand...


No it isn't you idiot n00b. It's standard and essential practice on
corporate networks.

ss.
 
In message <[email protected]> "Synapse Syndrome"
No it isn't you idiot n00b. It's standard and essential practice on
corporate networks.
Click to expand...

It's both a good suggestion, and totally useless against someone with
physical access to the machine and unrestricted time.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
No it isn't you idiot n00b. It's standard and essential practice on
corporate networks.
Click to expand...

It will not protect the data on a stolen laptop, or protect the data on
*any* computer.
If you think it will you're deluded.
If your computer is stolen they can just mount the disk in another computer.
How secure is that?

Your steps will just hinder a passerby who tries to access the machine,
that's all & it'll hinder them for a very short period of time.
 
In message <[email protected]> "Isaac Hunt"
It will not protect the data on a stolen laptop, or protect the data on
*any* computer.
If you think it will you're deluded.
If your computer is stolen they can just mount the disk in another computer.
How secure is that?

Your steps will just hinder a passerby who tries to access the machine,
that's all & it'll hinder them for a very short period of time.
Click to expand...

In his defense, these steps are critical in a layered defense for use in
a corporate environment (or any environment where potentially untrusted
users have physical access to the equipment)

The reason you'd lock down the BIOS is to ensure that the preconfigured
OS can boot (You'd also have to disable the "safe mode" equivalent
bypasses, or ensure that other boot methods are relatively secure as
well), combined with hardware tamper triggers, to avoid cases where
software installs or minor hardware tampering goes unnoticed.

None of this stops an intruder, it just lets you know about it after the
fact. This is almost as important in terms of corporate espionage.
 
Same thing happened to me a couple of months ago.
Coming back to my car after having eaten at a
restaurant, we found the passenger window smashed in.
I think the thief saw the GPS mount on my dash and he
assumed the GPS device was somewhere in the car. It wasn't.
The stuff he did take wasn't very valuable, but by the time
I got all the damage repaired the total bill ran to almost
$1000. State Farm covered every penny of it, but not the
aggravation.

Gary VanderMolen
 
DevilsPGD said:
In message <[email protected]> "Isaac Hunt"


In his defense, these steps are critical in a layered defense for use in
a corporate environment (or any environment where potentially untrusted
users have physical access to the equipment)

The reason you'd lock down the BIOS is to ensure that the preconfigured
OS can boot (You'd also have to disable the "safe mode" equivalent
bypasses, or ensure that other boot methods are relatively secure as
well), combined with hardware tamper triggers, to avoid cases where
software installs or minor hardware tampering goes unnoticed.

None of this stops an intruder, it just lets you know about it after the
fact. This is almost as important in terms of corporate espionage.
Click to expand...

Yes I understand the need for something like these steps in a corporate
environment.
It is in the context of this thread & the scenario of a stolen laptop that
it's of virtually no use.
Point is, if I lose an encrypted laptop I don't really care. I have backups
& the only loss is the laptop itself, not my privacy.

I stumbled upon some software (can't find the link now) that is free &
downloads a small app to the PC which allows you to register the laptop in a
database & receive a unique ID.
Upon the theft of the machine, you log it as stolen (via another machine
obviously) & if the machine goes online it will either encrypt or erase
files the user has specified.
It also records details of the IP, internet connection for tracking.

Looks like a good program & if encryption were not available, probably
something I would test, but if you encrypt it, your privacy worries with
respect to loss of the machine are pretty much non existant.

I'll have to look for that link....there are a few commercial apps out there
like this, but this one was freeware.
 
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