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Please Help, Stolen laptop but I have LogMeIn installed

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  • 17-07-2011 8:19pm
    #1
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭


    Hello all,

    I am writing here in the hope that some kind souls can help me.

    I moved to Berlin in January, my flat was broken into last month and all of our (mine and my girlfriends) stuff was taken including 2 laptops, SLR camera, ps3. psp, nintendo DS.

    I had logmein installed on both my old toshiba laptop and my girlfriends macbook pro.

    thankfully the person who bought the laptop hasn't formatted the hard drive so I still have remote access from logmein, we have been keeping logs of all the IP addresses used and using the file manager to recover photos

    now that we have all our important info back off the laptop I've also been copying browser history and more recently been copying the mobileSync backup folder. so it appears that the person has an iPhone.

    The police have been unbelievably good to us and have raided 2 locations already (thanks to the IP addresses), unfortunately nothing has turned up yet.

    I was hoping I could help the detectives more by extracting more useful information from the laptop, i cant install a keylogger and I cant seem to find a facebook profile for the person either. but I was hoping I could extract the iPhone tracking data and map out where the person is and their patterns.

    we have an address from the iPhone backup that we're 99% sure is his home address and we also have the iphone IMEI number and mobile number, we have a rough location of where he works too.

    could anyone give me some advice as to how to get the tracking data from the iphone maybe how to get his text message backup also.

    and if anyone could think of some other valuable information we might be able to get I would be eternally grateful.

    Sorry for the long winded post, but hopefully someone can help!

    thank you for reading,

    all the best

    Richie


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    #2
    Hal Emmerich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭Hal Emmerich


    I can't help other than to say that if you don't get a reply here (may fall to page 2 pretty quick) try the Security Forum maybe.


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    #3
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Thanks Hal,

    Will repost in the security thread also (hopefully thats ok with the mods)

    cheers for the bump too ;)

    hopefully something good comes out of it, will also update the threads with any info as things happen.

    Rich


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    #4
    RTT
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭RTT


    Is there anyway you can use the webcam to take still images of the thief/user? I know some programmes allow that such as prey project. Hope you get it back.


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    #5
    Hal Emmerich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭Hal Emmerich


    This'll be the boardie version of this Vid...


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    #6
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    If you get a chance if you want to risk taking control of the laptop when its on and not in use you could install prey and use it to take a pic with the webcam every 15 mins when the laptop is on or something like that.


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    #7
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Hey RTT,

    I could use photobooth to take pictures but I would have to risk being caught using remote control of the computer. Right no I've been using the logMeIn file manager, and in fairness they have already put over 250 pictures of themselves on the laptop, including webcam shots. some of which have revealed locations.

    one of the issues is that the laptop is currently located in east berlin (as am i) because berlin was originally split until 1989 the telephone network in the east is a bit of a mess (according to deutsche telekom, who own all the IP addresses we have logged)

    anyway we have a fair bit of info, I would like to be able to be more specific for the police though as it would be easier to get a judgement and search earrant if I can implicitly say that the person is at a certain address or whatever, and thats why the iPhone tracking data would be awesome.

    The police have been amazing they have been all over the case and communicating with us frequently, they have also been taking any info we found very seriously, I would just like to get to a point where they can go and get the stuff back legally.

    belive me, we know where they live and their phone number, its tempting to just go over with friends and take the **** back but, if the police can get it all back for us then all the better.

    thank you both for the helpful comments


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    #8
    RTT
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭RTT


    Well please keep us posted as to how you're getting on. Unfortunately I don't know much about the iphone tracking data. You've come to the right place here for advice anyway. Hopefully someone will be along to help you shortly. Fingers crossed for you!


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    #9
    T-Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,317 ✭✭✭T-Bird


    Not sure if there is any help here? I tried to google and similar had happened before.

    http://community.logmeinrescue.com/t5/Miscellaneous-Offtopic/Used-LogMeIn-to-track-and-recover-stolen-laptop/td-p/22909


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    #10
    Snowbat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,064 ✭✭✭Snowbat


    * Mac: /[User]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/[Newest Folder]/
    * Windows: [User]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\[Newest Folder]

    See http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/#2 for description and tools to extract the location data.


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    #11
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    @ Snowbat

    cheers for that was looking at that yesterday alright, my girlfriend managed to get it working today so we have the tracking data now too :)

    @thundermuppet

    That could be a good route to take too, but at the moment I have a lot of faith in the police here. There was other stuff taken too, so if the police find the guy, they can arrest him, we can press charges too. If he co-operates and helps us find other stuff that was robbed we could drop the charges, cause in fairness this isnt the guy who actually did the break in.

    @GarIT

    I'd love to install prey but since its a laptop, its seems that every time he uses it he's at the computer and just closes the lid when he's done, at the moment its a little too risky.


    Thank you to everyone for the suggestions and support, it means a lot!


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    #12
    Nforce
    Registered Users Posts: 2,924 ✭✭✭Nforce


    If the thief is taking pics with their iphone around their home and uploads them to the laptop you could get the gps co-ordinates from the exif data (assuming you can access the images and that the thief hasn't disabled the gps data from being stored).


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    #13
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Cheers for the tip Nforce, I was told to do that too and we've been checking the GPS tags today. looks like the most recent pictures are from when they were on holidays recently :)

    hopefully we can find some from them taking pictures around the house.

    Would be nice to have a program that can browse the iPhone backup files without showing all the files in their raw hexidecimal filenames. the files are all over the place at the moment.


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    #14
    T-Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,317 ✭✭✭T-Bird


    Any news?


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    #15
    duckysauce
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,930 ✭✭✭duckysauce


    v interesting thread hope you get your **** back


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    #16
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    thundermuppet wrote: »
    Any news?

    As for an update, we have a couple more files, we have a new iPhone backup and we have some GPS data from the iPhone pictures and the iPhone itself. the iPhone tracking data is a little sketchy though as when you zoom in its not as accurate as I was hoping, it seems to just update when the phone goes into a new mobile cell grid or whatever.

    We should be talking with the police again on monday and will try to get a plan in place.

    So not a huge amount to report yet but hopefully I will have something new to report next week.

    thanks again to everyone for the suggestions and support!

    also, for those who didnt know I have this thread open in the security forum too....
    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056330739

    (if mods feel the need to merge the threads please do, don't want to be annoying ye.)


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    #17
    Fluffy88
    Registered Users Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭Fluffy88


    If your using the tool to look at the GPS data on a map it purposely makes the data a little inaccurate so that people can't use that tool to actually track a persons movements. But the actual GPS data saved is a lot more accurate than the tools shows. The people who made the tool done this on purpose.

    So if you really do want to track the GPS data saved, a better tool might be available to do it, or hand it over to the police as they might have the tools required to show the GPS data more accurately.


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    #18
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    aha, I see

    thats an excellent tip Fluffy! thank you for that, I'll have to check that out so!


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    #19
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    Has there been any news since? I really hope this works out, I think there seems to have been a big step in the right direction as from what I've heard a few years ago police wouldn't even consider acting on info like that.


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    #20
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Glad to hear people are still interested.

    For an update, the detective has confirmed that we were right about the home address and a number of other details.

    I also managed to get the text message data off the iphone and will be collating the GPS data with the IP addresses this week.

    The detective has been awesome and so helpful the whole way, he's really determined to get our stuff back. There should be some more concrete developments next week and I will update everyone again, hopefully with good news :)

    I would have to agree with you Gar the police have been really interested in getting more info from us and using logmein to track the laptop, I can't stress enough how good they have been.


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    #21
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Well done pursuing this and fair f'cks to the cops. Hope you get your stuff back.


    Thinking about it, I run 3 installs on my laptop(500GB so why not like) but all are password protected. A potential theif would inevitably wipe the drive to use it, so software isn't necessarily going to help tracking it. Is there any affordable hardware solution on the market(I'm thinking miniCard)?


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    #22
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Lethal_Bullet wrote: »
    Well done pursuing this and fair f'cks to the cops. Hope you get your stuff back.


    Thinking about it, I run 3 installs on my laptop(500GB so why not like) but all are password protected. A potential theif would inevitably wipe the drive to use it, so software isn't necessarily going to help tracking it. Is there any affordable hardware solution on the market(I'm thinking miniCard)?

    What would you mean by minicard? I'd be interested in solutions for tracking laptops in the future that don't rely on software.

    I think we were just quite lucky that the person who happened to buy the stolen laptop isn't particularly technically minded, I would have to agree that if you get a second hand laptop then wiping it would be the route to take, even if there is nothing wrong with the setup, I'd be inclined to set it up how I like.

    We did see this week in the internet history though that the guy who has the laptop did manage to follow instructions on a thread somewhere on how to reset the admin password without the osx disc. It would seem though that we've also been lucky that he hasn't wiped the original account or any of the software as logmein is still connecting and functioning, we just don't have access to the new account.

    this shouldn't be a problem for the police though as we have both unique physical description of the laptop (there's a dent in the lid),the serial number, original packaging and receipts. and since the original account is still there, our pictures and data should be on there too :)

    cheers for the support man! :)


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    #23
    PrzemoF
    Registered Users Posts: 1,931 ✭✭✭PrzemoF


    Wha kind of access do you have? Can you run a command from command line (like ssh connection)?

    Can you obtain name of wifi network they are using ("iwconfig" on linux, not sure how it is on a mac)? Rough location from GPS data + some "wardriving" should nail down their location.

    P.S. if might be "/usr/sbin/networksetup" or "/usr/sbin/airport -I"


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    #24
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    PrzemoF wrote: »
    Wha kind of access do you have? Can you run a command from command line (like ssh connection)?

    Can you obtain name of wifi network they are using ("iwconfig" on linux, not sure how it is on a mac)? Rough location from GPS data + some "wardriving" should nail down their location.

    P.S. if might be "/usr/sbin/networksetup" or "/usr/sbin/airport -I"

    I have Logmein access, which is the idiots version of a remote connection :)

    so I don't know if I can ssh to the laptop or if I can run any commands, and even if I had that access I have to admit, that may be a little above my skillset, at least I wouldn't be comfortable trying it unless I was certain it wouldn't reveal to the person that I have access to the laptop.

    I do appreciate the suggestion though,
    what I did think was that if the iphone tracking data is at regular enough intervals I could simply take the times he was online at certain IP addresses and match them with the GPS data that I could grab from the phone backup.

    We do also have his home and work address already, at this point its a matter of the police getting a warrant and picking the right time to go search the place.


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    #25
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    richiek wrote: »
    What would you mean by minicard? I'd be interested in solutions for tracking laptops in the future that don't rely on software.

    I dont know if such a thing exists, but its not uncommon for laptops to have a spare/second "miniCard" or miniPCI slot. That or the PCMCIA or w/e its called, but the latter is more obvious.

    Googling around a pet tracker seems to be a popular DIY option, but such services do cost s bit.


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    #26
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Lethal_Bullet wrote: »
    I dont know if such a thing exists, but its not uncommon for laptops to have a spare/second "miniCard" or miniPCI slot. That or the PCMCIA or w/e its called, but the latter is more obvious.

    Googling around a pet tracker seems to be a popular DIY option, but such services do cost s bit.


    interesting idea though, will look into this :)


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    #27
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Just to update everyone on this case, Sorry there has been pretty much no News lately but there just simply has been no news, things were going very slowly with getting a new warant to search the guy home.

    But, today all our waiting and waiting has paid off!!! the Police have recovered the stolen laptop and its is now in their custody, ready to be picked up by us today!

    From my girlfriend and myself I would like to thank all of you who showed an interest and support with this whole thing, its been a lot of help.

    I would also like to especially thank the Berlin Police department who were relentless and extremely patient. they did an absolutely wonderful job and I cant thank them enough!!

    for your interest also, the other thread that was open is located here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74167117&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=notify


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    #28
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Nice work. :) Are they prosecuting the thief?


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    #29
    RTT
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭RTT


    Thats great news. I'm delighted for you!!


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    #30
    richiek
    Registered Users Posts: 105 ✭✭richiek


    Thank you, thank you :)

    @RTT I'll have to get back to you on that, we literally got the news minutes ago, so we will have to see how the rest pans out.

    Will keep the thread updated and let people know what the story is, and hopefully I can get a blog post or something together in the next while to give the whole story from start to finish.


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    #31
    godtabh
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 23,208 Mod ✭✭✭✭godtabh


    I've been reading both threads.

    did you get all your stolen gear or just the laptop?


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