Re: Stolen laptop - how to increase security?

[Heather <star@starshine.org>]

> Regarding the laptop-protection daemon..
> 
> > In the case somebody unpluggs the machine while under the xlock (without
> > giving the password), then the daemon would detect it and could start doing
> > some preventive action, such as:
> > - playing a sound with maximum volume saying "I am getting stolen".
> 
> "I am getting stolen. Please plug the power back in!
> 
> I have contacted the police on my wireless modem,
> and told them my GPS coordinates.
> 
> They already have your fingerprints."

Hmm, hard to tell if this was for grins, or serious... I can see it either 
way.

[These are examples, not real, but...]

Errr, so the building's power goes out because some dork across the city
ran his truck into a pole, and every laptop whose owner was in a meeting 
starts crying "eek" or whatever.  At the top of its speaker range of course.

Errr(2) so there I am at the coffee house and they decide to tell us that
it's closing time by flipping the power off for a minute or two til everyone
shuts up.  My machine had gotten "sleepy" only a moment before because I was 
watching a chess game, and...

Errr(3) unbeknownst to you, somebody in the next apartment over decides to
plug their new microwave into a weak, shared circuit. -bzzt/pop- Since 
apartment walls are so thin they may as well be subwoofers, 6 different 
apartments (or more) hear the machine falsely cry out.  Some of them surely
are on the affected circuit too and clue in... but only one of them has to 
call 911 to make it all a major pain in the butt.  (Plainer phones get their
power from the phone line, you only need wall power for 900 MHz, speed dials
and like that.)  The wisdom of owning a laptop in a cheap apartment complex
is a different matter, though you had hoped to protect your investment with
some software tricks.  Now all your neighbors know about your laptop :(

[end example section]

I can tell you, these wouldn't happen twice... 

Some sort of delay in the software would be wise.  The first sound byte should
just be something at local-volume level, "Warning! Power Lost! Please plug me
back in!"  Failure to respond with the password (whether or not you restore
power) leads to the rest of the sequence.


* Heather Stern * star@ many places...