Stolen software

[Guest]

This may or may not be the right forum for this question... My computer was
stolen on Monday and a copy of XP Home with it. I had an encryption software
installed on the machine that required a numeric password or else it would
crash after any attempt to boot into safemode. Someone told me today that if
they took the CD they would be able to boot off of that instead. Is this
true? Wouldn't they have to reinstall it then? And, if my copy of XP is
already registered in my name - how could they register and re-activate it?
Is there any way to notify Microsoft of this attempt to re-register the
software to block it from happening?

I had a LOT of sensitive info on that machine and I am really concerned. Any
response is appreciated.

Regina
Charlotte NC

 

[Steven L Umbach]

They can boot off of an install cd to install/reinstall the operating system
though most likely they will not be able to access your encrypted data as
they would need your numeric password and the application should make that
very difficult to extract. Unless they were specifically targeting your
computer for the data and are very sophisticated with a lot of resources
they would give up trying to access your data files and just be glad that
they got a free laptop. They won't try to use your copy of XP. Crooks like
that have illegal copies of operating systems to install or will sell the
laptop as is for $100 or so. If you accessed a network remotely through a
VPN make sure you change your password. --- Steve