Reality check
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| cabreh Dec 04, 2009 3:18 AM EDT |
The first thing almost any thief will do is wipe your hard drive and re-install whatever they want. There goes your nice little python script. |
| gus3 Dec 04, 2009 3:32 AM EDT |
Yes, if the thief wants the hardware, but not if the thief wants your data, your login info, your authenticated sessions... There are still ways, but any odds greater than zero still makes it worth the effort. |
| cabreh Dec 04, 2009 4:04 AM EDT |
True, but the number of laptop thefts where they are after your data are pretty small. The vast majority want some money for what they stole. They know they can't sell it with Linux installed and so will wipe it for Windows. Why not suggest something better? Such as a hard drive password. Or an encrypted drive. If you have something like an HP laptop and put a password on it even you cannot change it. Believe me I know. I have a hard drive sitting at home I cannot use because I didn't want to give away the password I spent years coming up with when I gave the laptop away. :) |
| Sander_Marechal Dec 04, 2009 4:33 AM EDT |
I don't know how these hard drive password work (is it in the hardware?) but drive encryption doesn't help much. Sure, the thief can't get to your data but he can still wipe the drive and put Windows on it. Then again, with physical access to the machine there is little you can do anyway. Boobytrap it perhaps? :-) |
| cabreh Dec 04, 2009 6:58 AM EDT |
Every time I bring up planting explosives in laptops people get upset. I can't figure out why. I know the HP password set-up is in hardware on the drive. Once set it cannot be removed or even changed. At least I found nothing on the web where anyone succeeded. And many wanted to. |
| jdixon Dec 04, 2009 10:04 AM EDT |
> The vast majority want some money for what they stole. They know they can't sell it with Linux installed and so will wipe it for Windows. I suspect that the vast majority of folks who will steal (spelling corrected) a laptop have no clue and will simply fence it to someone else for whatever they can get. The won't even try to turn it on. Windows or Linux makes no difference to them. The fence may be another matter. > Every time I bring up planting explosives in laptops people get upset. I can't figure out why. Me either, but I've found there's little use arguing with people who refuse to see the wisdom of your suggestions. :) |
| caitlyn Dec 04, 2009 11:06 AM EDT |
I'm with cabreh on this one. The chance of a script like this helping you recover a lost netbook is only slightly smaller than your chance of winning the grand prize in a lottery. There is a chance but it really is infinitesimal. |
| tracyanne Dec 04, 2009 4:49 PM EDT |
Quoting:I suspect that the vast majority of folks who will still a laptop have no clue and will simply fence it to someone else for whatever they can get Yep. |
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