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PC, phone home
Industry aims to stop theft of laptops
June 10, 1997
Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT)From Correspondent Greg Lefevre
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Expensive, compact and frequently out and about, a laptop computer makes an attractive target for thieves.
But the computer industry has devised some ingenious ways to counter theft, including invisible software that knows when the computer is in trouble.
"As soon as the thief plugs that machine into a phone network, it will phone home," said John Livingston, chief executive of CompuTrace Service.
The call goes to a Canadian office that in turn phones the cops. So far, it has a 100 percent recovery rate.
For most laptop users, the value of the computer hardware is only a small part of the loss. "The machine is only $6,000 to $10,000, but what's on it is what you cannot afford to lose," said Richard Bernes of the FBI high tech squad in San Jose, California.
In 1994, some 150,000 laptops were stolen in the United States. Nearly twice as many were swiped last year.
Laptop computers are most frequently stolen at airports. But they also can be vulnerable at the office.
Most of the office thefts are inside jobs. Bernes says 75 percent of laptop thefts "are done internally, by people that belong on the property, not just employees, but contractors as well."
Some answers, like a locking cable are cheap and easy. Author Kevin Coffey uses another, an alarm that sounds when trouble breaks out. "It's just a simple computer disk," he says.
But police say the best cure is the easiest: Don't let the laptop out of your sight.
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