Laptop shouts when stolen

3 Mar 2009

A company has created a theft deterrent for laptops which announces when it has been stolen or lost.

The Front Door Software Corporation's innovation can be programmed to shout anything such as 'Get your hands off me, I have been stolen'. One user changed the alert to 'You are being tracked. I am right at your door'.

Retriever, the feature's brand name, costs £21 and can also be set to display a coloured banner which runs alongside the audio alert.

Users must register the laptop online, then if the equipment is stolen, log on to the website and report the theft. The website sends a message to the laptop to display the banner and play the audio alert.

The default audio alert is 'Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, please report me now'.

To help find the laptop, the software will also alert police to the location and ISP used if the thief tries to access the web from the machine. It also has the ability to remotely change the password to stop thieves accessing the machine.

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Comments

What happens if the hard drive is reformatted; does this not render the software useless?

Thanks. Mick

You are correct. Unless the software is very sophisticated, reformating the hard drive will indeed remove any use the tool has.

I believe the manufacturers are basing the gadget's worth on the premise that the laptop may be stolen and sold on and then reported and with this tool it can be returned to the rightful owner and hopefully traced back to the seller/thief.

As is often the problem - if reactive gadgets like this become popular - this is usually followed by a very efficient method for rendering them useless by the more organised thieves.