Download of the Week: LaptopLock
PrintYou can put all the security measures you want on your portable PC, but odds are good that unless you're running some heavy encryption across your entire hard drive--I cry for your system's performance--an industrious cracker is going to find some way into your files should he or she have physical access to your laptop. And it's not like it's that hard to steal a laptop: you pick it up, you run away, you bust your way into the operating system. Done and done.
That's where a little application called LaptopLock comes into play. This download is more like a half-and-half, in that it combines the services of a Web app and a downloadable application into one awesome package. Let's paint a scenario: You lose your laptop. You're terrified that someone has actually taken your laptop and, worse, your laptop contains all of your personal information in a little file called "Nathan's Important Information" right on your desktop. What? You were doing your taxes; It's not unheard of.
This story would usually end a few hours later after you've managed to cancel all of your credit cards and cried buckets of tears at the thought of someone stealing your identity, provided said thief hasn't already used your debit card information to go on a personal shopping spree. Now, had you installed LaptopLock beforehand, the roles would be reversed: You'd be sitting easy and the thief would be freaking out at his or her missed opportunity.
Here's how it works. You make a fancy little account on LaptopLock's official site and install the provided application on your laptop. In doing so, you set the various actions your computer should take if you ever think that it's been stolen, including the mass deletion of files and directories, new encryption for your files, executing any program on your hard drive (like a big screen saver that says "I hate you"), and the displaying of any message you want (see aforementioned screen saver.)
Once you're ready to activate your countermeasures, just head on over to the LaptopLock site and mark your device as being stolen. The next time said laptop connects to the Internet, said software will do its best to give you as much detail about your system's whereabouts as possible. And, as you would expect, it'll also start whatever countermeasures you've set up. Alas, this does not include "rigging the power supply so the entire notebook explodes in a thief's hands."
Each week, Maximum PC picks a new free or shareware download as its favorite of... the week. Have a nifty application that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.
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lien_meat
March 19, 2010 at 2:40pm
This would only work on stupid people that don't know how to pull the hard drive or disable/remove the wifi card, and not connect...EVER.
I'm pretty sure if I was a theif, the first thing I'd do is pull the hard drive, replace it with a blank, install an OS on it, and sell it. If I wanted the data, fine...I've still got the drive, and I can do whatever I want safely on another machine. If it's encrypted...oh well...still made money off the laptop. It would have still been worth the trouble.
If identity theives are stupid enough to fall for this, they weren't gonna get very far with your identity anyway...
Mighty BOB!
March 18, 2010 at 7:44pm
Too bad anyone who steals them "professionaly" is smart enough to never let the laptop connect to the web, rendering any application that needs to connect to the web moot (such as something that say, reports its location to the authorites or uses the webcam to take pictures of the thief, etc.). Therefore the best countermeasure is preventive. Encrypt the whole drive.
Of course that isn't to say that those sorts of programs never work, they certainly do sometimes, but it's all predisposed on the thief connecting to the Internet, and the odds are not in your favor.
win7fanboi
March 19, 2010 at 7:07am
exactly... and who cares about the system partition... just encrypt the partition your data is on using Truecrpyt. If you are worried about performance (security and convenience are two opposing forces), just have a Truecrypt file container which holds your sensitive info.
whitehat2009
March 18, 2010 at 6:56pm
TrueCrypt is the way to go. I'd like to see a common thief break through 256-bit AES encryption...
winmaster
March 20, 2010 at 6:17pm
I have my laptop's hard drive True Encrypted and I don't even notice the performance difference.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
polobunny
March 18, 2010 at 6:41pm
TrueCrypt offers OTF full drive/partition encryption with very good performance, close to direct disk access under Windows. Since this article is about Windows, Linux or OSX performance is not relevant.
Where it takes a larger hit though is in operations which would normally use DMA.
"I cry for your system's performance" is a ridiculous thing to say in this situation. It's perfectly acceptable and offers virtually no way to bypass the encryption (unless someone had access to this computer before and installed the Stoned rootkit), whereas LaptopLock only serves to help find the culprit, if you're lucky. Nothing to protect your information in there if the laptop doesn't get connected to the internet after being stolen.
jgrimoldy
March 18, 2010 at 6:39pm
Sounds nice, but this is flagrantly useless.
If I lifted someone's laptop and was interested in getting to their files, I'd pull the drive and slave it to another system. I would not bother to fuck around with trying to logon.
If I really, REALLY wanted to boot their system, I'd use any number of methods to crack the local admin password (if it even had one). Once in, I'd start rooting thru their files. Connecting the laptop to the internet would be exceedingly low on my agenda. I certainly would have no pressing reason to connect, nor would any sensible identity theif.
Soooo, in the practical world (where i live), where is the benefit?
tapple
March 18, 2010 at 6:29pm
yeah, if you make a simple program that runs in the backgrond silently, and just does webcam duty. Actually a good idea.
bigblackbear
March 18, 2010 at 5:47pm
Can the webcam send a picture of the thief to an e-mail address?
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