Many laptop users will recognise the feeling of realising they have left their precious device on the back seat of a taxi, or even in the rush of changing flights at an airport.
But a new program has been designed to help the owners of stolen or lost laptops recover their gadgets by using embedded hardware products that broadcast location information.
Products such as PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome are able to send out location information to original owners, but a new program embeds itself on hardware to survive any wipe of the computer’s hard drive.
The LoJack For Laptops program is embedded by hardware manufactures, and automatically reinstalls itself on to a wiped hard drive.
“Stolen laptops can be more valuable than a car, and are often recovered alongside a whole bunch of other items, such as drugs. We have had a lot of interest and co-operation from local law enforcement agencies,” said Armen Vardanian, a security consultant manufacturer at Brigadoon Software.
The software relays an IP address, combined with location data that is accurate to even street-level.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
