Laptop anti-theft technology is becoming more widely available, and ranges from the more secure BIOS-based utilities, to simpler freeware tools that rely on your would-be laptop thief stopping for coffee somewhere and using your laptop to browse the web. 

Given the technical advancements in GPS, and the broader availability of Wi-Fi hot-spots, the costs of sophisticated anti-theft tools are very reasonable, and generally well worth it.  Laptop theft is a serious problem for IT organizations – especially for employees that travel frequently, or attend trade shows.

Yesterday Lenovo and Absolute Software announced that new select models of Lenovo Laptops will include a software in the laptop’s BIOS that will “call home” in case of theft or loss.

According to Absolute Software:

For example, if a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 notebook has not “checked in” with the Absolute Monitoring Center over the Internet within a specified time, Anti-Theft PC Protection working through Computrace would automatically lock the notebook, rendering it unusable to an unauthorized user. Additionally, an IT administrator can use Computrace and Intel Anti-Theft PC Protection technology to make a device inoperative when it is lost or stolen. The next time that computer "checks in," the computer will be locked. Working alone, Intel Anti-Theft PC Protection can lock a computer if it experiences more than a prescribed number of password attempts, or if it exceeds an internally programmed IT policy for check-in time. The IT department can unlock the computer when it is back in the hands of an authorized user.

How do they do it?

The Computrace application is loaded on the hard drive of a computer while support for the Computrace agent is embedded in the BIOS or firmware.

If the hard drive is reformatted or replaced, the Computrace Agent support in the BIOS rebuilds the necessary application files on the hard drive as required by the customer.

Let’s just hope that your thief doesn’t decide he just wanted your laptop for spare parts.

Meanwhile, Laptop Cop offers a software-based service for $50 that includes geo-location of your laptop should it get stolen.  The geo-location is done by identifying Wi-Fi hotspots – so you’d better not lose your laptop somewhere in a Wi-Fi-free zone.  (Check out their FAQ page – someone accidentally PhotoShopped a 6th toe onto their stock image model.)

And for the stingiest of us, there’s also Loki, which publishes the location of your laptop onto the web for free.  This might not be the best option for those who don’t want their stalker friends to know where they are at all times.

Filed under: Consumer Web, Enterprise Web