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Office laptop stolen - UPDATE: Thief came back on. Recording screen now.

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Lifted said:
Interesting. One thing though.



Still risky since I don't know the person using it is the actual thief.

But that guy did this not too long ago with his macbook, and made a blog about it, with pics of the perp, which finally got the police to respond to it. I wonder if I'll have to do the same.
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Yeah, I remember that page. But, it's gray area. If that guy had not been the actual thief, he could have been looking at privacy issues.

In either case, by all means, grab screen caps to help identify the person currently with the laptop, but don't make them public.
 
So now the employee doesn't want to follow up with police, so I'm left with sending a message to the thief telling him to return the laptop or else I'll hand his info over to police.
 
Lifted said:
So now the employee doesn't want to follow up with police, so I'm left with sending a message to the thief telling him to return the laptop or else I'll hand his info over to police.
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The employee stole it and gave to friend/lover.
 
Wait until you see a lull in activity; i.e. probably gone to the bathroom, turn on the webcam and start your recording software. In the few seconds it will take the thief to realize the cam is on, you'll have more than enough video to ID the thief.

The employee who stole the laptop in the first place has zero rights in this case. What he/she wants doesn't matter. So now I'm confused; employee steals laptop but now doesn't have it? Was it stolen from the stealer? :\
 
Lifted said:
So now the employee doesn't want to follow up with police, so I'm left with sending a message to the thief telling him to return the laptop or else I'll hand his info over to police.
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On an office laptop how is the employee given this option?
 
I read recently how there was some machine-code virus/hack out there that could mess with the ability of the laptop's battery to self regulate. Turn of the regulator and the battery will explode from being severely overcharged. Just a thought...
 
MichaelD said:
I read recently how there was some machine-code virus/hack out there that could mess with the ability of the laptop's battery to self regulate. Turn of the regulator and the battery will explode from being severely overcharged. Just a thought...
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This sounds like a script from some random terrible mid-90s movie where you can accomplish anything with "hacking." BLOW UP THE COMPUTER THROUGH THE HACKS!
 
Atomic Playboy said:
I wasn't implying that it wasn't true, it just sounds like something that you would have seen in a bad movie in the 90s. Or, hell, Live Free or Die Hard where the bad guys can blow up oil refineries by hacking them. It's funny that something that used to be a ridiculous plot point is now actually possible.
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OK I agree with that.

Scary though. Should apply to most laptops since their all made in the same factory.
 
Strange I agree, but the employee doesn't want to deal with the police, and already agreed to pay for the laptop ($2,200) so we don't really care.

He may not want to deal with the police due to time suck, and having to potentially face the thief / appear in court, which can always be risky if the perp has angry friends or relatives.

Or he just gave it to a friend, but he could have gotten a much cheaper laptop so doesn't make much sense.

As far as how the thief got into the laptop... I'm guessing that since the entire bag was stolen that there was a password written down somewhere. There was no boot or HDD password due to lack of a fingerprint reader, but the replacement has a fingerprint reader so it has the extra security.

Thief signed off for now, so I'm waiting for him to get back on so I can start recording his antics and get a better idea of who he is. That way I can tell him to return the laptop or I go to the police.
 
KingGheedora said:
Or just don't plug it into your network?
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I think vPro can be configure to lock a harddrive if it doesn't contact an authorization server after X many days/hours. So pulling it is a good idea.. On the other hand, vPro probably has the drive encrypted.

But yea, running it without it plugged into the network then trying to clean it up is the least best thing.
Lifted said:
Strange I agree, but the employee doesn't want to deal with the police, and already agreed to pay for the laptop ($2,200) so we don't really care.

He may not want to deal with the police due to time suck, and having to potentially face the thief / appear in court, which can always be risky if the perp has angry friends or relatives.

Or he just gave it to a friend, but he could have gotten a much cheaper laptop so doesn't make much sense.

As far as how the thief got into the laptop... I'm guessing that since the entire bag was stolen that there was a password written down somewhere. There was no boot or HDD password due to lack of a fingerprint reader, but the replacement has a fingerprint reader so it has the extra security.

Thief signed off for now, so I'm waiting for him to get back on so I can start recording his antics and get a better idea of who he is. That way I can tell him to return the laptop or I go to the police.
Click to expand...

This sounds too sketchy, I'd terminate the employee and try to wipe the laptop to be on the safe side. Sounds like the employee has something to hide.
 
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