[Dataloss] [ekmi] Re: fringe: Open source laptop tracking

Thu Jul 17 12:55:39 UTC 2008

Brian

As has been pointed out this type of technology does nothing to protect your
data and provides some recourse to recover the physical device if and when
it connects to the Internet. Indeed in some countries you may have to
carefully consider the legal and privacy implications of using such
technology.  The Data Privacy laws in some European countries may restrict
the use of such technology - this is something that I have yet to research
into further though.  In a similar vein some police forces may not be able
to act on the information you provide to them.

The most useful application I have seen for this type of technology is
recovering computers stolen by employees.  I know of one company that
installed similar technology onto laptops given out to employees and as a
result saw the number of "lost laptops" reduce.  They discovered that staff
were reporting their laptop had been stolen or lost but in actual fact were
keeping the laptop for their own use.  Of course this measure may only be
effective until employees realise how the company is tracking their laptops
and simply follow some of the steps outlined in an earlier email to remove
the software from it.

Regards

Brian

BH Consulting

  _____  

From: dataloss-bounces at attrition.org [mailto:dataloss-bounces at attrition.org]
On Behalf Of Brian Krebs
Sent: 17 July 2008 04:18
To: Allen; Arshad Noor
Cc: security curmudgeon; dataloss at attrition.org; ekmi;
ST-ISC at MAIL.ABANET.ORG
Subject: Re: [Dataloss] [ekmi] Re: fringe: Open source laptop tracking

My big question is, assuming for a minute you can actually zero in on the
person who stole your machine (what about crowded living areas, like
apartment buildings), what is the likelihood you'll be able to get the
police to knock on someone's door with that evidence?

Doesn't seem all that bloodly likely to me. Seems like it increases the
chance that people running this software will confront the thief on their
own and possibly put themselves in a very compromising situation.

Brian Krebs
www.washingtonpost.com/securityfix
703-469-3162 (w)
703-989-0727 (c)

  _____  

From: dataloss-bounces at attrition.org on behalf of Allen
Sent: Wed 7/16/2008 11:01 PM
To: Arshad Noor
Cc: security curmudgeon; ST-ISC at MAIL.ABANET.ORG; ekmi;
dataloss at attrition.org
Subject: Re: [Dataloss] [ekmi] Re: fringe: Open source laptop tracking

Arshad,

I don't think you analysis, which I agree with, goes far enough.

1) Steal laptop.
2) Remove battery.
3) Remove HD.
4) Use HD cloning software such as Apricorn - hardware and software
only $40 - and clone to any HD that is laying about
5) Mount clone as USB attached to a desktop
6) Attach old HD as USB attached and wipe old HD with DBAN or
similar tool
7) Use Aloha Bob or equivalent to selectively migrate OS and basic
productivity software such as Office from clone.
8) Remount HD in laptop
9) Sell the sucker.

Best,

Allen

Arshad Noor wrote:
> Am I the only one who believes that an attacker (who is after
> the data) with half-a-brain is going to make sure that the first
> time they boot up a stolen laptop, they're NOT going to put it on
> the internet, and they're going to disable any radio for wireless
> communications.  (Laptop companies have to provide an external
> radio switch I imagine so that there is confirmation of the radio
> being OFF inside an airplane - I'm not sure how the iPhone gets
> away with a software switch since we all know software can be
> buggy and the radio may not go off despite a visible indication
> that it is off - but that's another discussion.
>
> Alternatively, the attacker could boot off of a Linux CD and then
> copy the entire hard-disk contents (or what was most interesting)
> and then blow away everything on the hard-disk to reclaim the HW.
>
> In both cases, they have the HW and the data without anything
> "calling home" to give away GPS positions or IP addresses of the
> machine.  So, why do people think that this is an effective
> counter-measure against data-theft?  How long do they anticipate
> this to work? And with which type of attacker?  I've read examples
> of attacks that go beyond anything most IT developers - or even
> security developers - are capable of in the marketplace today, so
> who is this expected to deter?  The guy who broke into your car
> to get the hub-caps and radio, but got the laptop instead?
>
> Very puzzled.....
>
> Arshad Noor
> StrongAuth, Inc.
>
> security curmudgeon wrote:
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade at shaw.ca>
>>
>> I know some people who are going to be really upset by this, but
>> personally, I'm delighted:
>>
>> Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of
>> California, San Diego, launched a new laptop tracking service, called
>> Adeona, that is free and private. Once downloaded onto a laptop, the
>> software starts anonymously sending encrypted notes about the
>> computer's whereabouts to servers on the Internet. If the laptop ever
>> goes missing, the user downloads another program, enters a username
>> and password, and then picks up this information from the servers, a
>> free storage service called OpenDHT.  (The Mac version of Adeona even
>> uses a freeware program called isightcapture to take a snapshot of
>> whomever is using the computer.) Adeona provides the IP address that
>> it last used as well as data on nearby routers. Armed with that
>> information, law enforcement could track down the criminal. Because
>> Adeona ships with an open-source license, anyone can take the code and
>> improve it or even sell it. The researchers say they're hoping that
>> software developers will build all kinds of new features such as
>> Global Positioning System-aware tracking systems for new platforms
>> such as the iPhone. Later this month, the Adeona team will give a
>> technical presentation at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Jose.
>>
>> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&tax
onomyName=security&articleId=9110128&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top>
&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9110128&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
>>
>>
>> http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/
>
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