FREE: Hidden - computer tracking application

Talisman

Hidden will help you track down your Mac if it's lost or stolen.

Licenses usually cost $20 per computer and in January they are switching to a subscription based service.

conor.hogan.2

Nice thanks.

Cant argue with free, may come in handy but hope I never need it.

whiterebel

Thanks, looks good.

was.deevey

Cant argue with free, may come in handy but hope I never need it.

Ok .. I have a conflict about using software such as this especially from a company I have never heard of before this .

I used to be part of a company who resold computrace who have been in the track and trace game for a long time and knowing what information is available is scary.

(We also collect lots of nerdy network information, but we won’t bore you with the details!)

If this "nerdy" information is anything like Computrace that information includes sites visited, email logins etc used to track the laptops position and identify the potential thief, activation of camera (e.g. what sites / yahoo address he/she is using).

Yes indeed this info is supposed to be used accessed ONLY if alarm is activated but I'd hate for the information they are privy to to be sold to another company if they went bust .... I did a good bit of research on the subject about a year ago and this company did not pop up at the time.

Weigh the cost of your data privacy to a third party over the cost of laptop .. I go for data privacy and strong encryption - but thats just me maybe, and perhaps paranoid ?

Computrace I would highly recommend BTW for business owners especially the inventory control and unstoppable remote disk destroy, they have been in the game a long time though.

conor.hogan.2

True.

I don't even like having my email in gmail (i duplicate to hotmail) and backup some online stuff with backupify and I dont even particularly like using dropbox altho I do a lot.

Plus these are all respected companies that have been around a long time - you dont get anything for free but those companies cant just disappear or abuse the information whereas a small unknown company could much easier.

Encryption is a good option but I havent been arsed yet - the average person definitely would never be bothered to even think of it never mind invest the time and effort into it.

was.deevey

Plus these are all respected companies that have been around a long time

I meant i never heard of "Hidden" before now, searches in google only refer to dates in 2010 whereas computrace have been in the game for about 12 years & have huge fedral, law enforcement and military clients.

Encryption is a good option but I havent been arsed yet - the average person definitely would never be bothered to even think of it never mind invest the time and effort into it.

Enable Filevault its in the preference pane .. single click does it :rolleyes:. certainly worth the peace of mind if your laptop is stolen.

Unfortunately, encrypting the computer defeats alot of the purpose of the tracking software as it renders the computer as useful as a brick without the thief setting up a new user account using the OSX disk ..and can only be tracked if in contact with an open Wifi Source or Ethernet.

The PC variant of computrace though has a Bios enabled tracking system which cannot be removed (even by flashing the bios).

conor.hogan.2

By encryption I meant something a little better than firevault like truecrypt.


http://preyproject.com/ - this is free and trusted, i would use this but as I said I can not really see myself using anything like this either way.

was.deevey

Truecrypt suffers the same security issues as Filevault if someone REALLY wants access to your files theres almost always a way, but a lab / second computer and fair bit of knowledge required to extract passwords and crack the account.

From the average person/business point of view filevault is a safe enough option if you don't want your information out in the world.

PreyProject looks interesting (and free!) however I do question 2 aspects.

1. Its open source - great in some aspects, but also means the code "could" in theory be cracked and comprimised.

2. They use third party providers for their storage.

It does look like a better system than "Hidden" though.

conor.hogan.2

Everything that anyone has physical access to is technically vulnerable.

Good security is always public and known - thats how you know its good. This is double in code as you know all security problems are found and patched faster than closed code in general.

Once the data is secure and the 3rd party is trusted thats perfect.

Elevator

if I was looking to encrypt something I'd do it AIB style

what software are they using?

conor.hogan.2

http://www.aib.ie/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=AIB_Ireland/Article&c=AIB_Article&cid=1136826272446

128 bit ssl - but thats for the website what they use for laptops or desktops etc I dont know.

was.deevey

Filevault is 256 AES, same as PGP / Truecrypt

All suffer the same issues (recovery from memory if cooled) .. only difference is filevault comes with OSX FREE and takes a single click to implement.

if I was looking to encrypt something I'd do it AIB style

Why Aib in particular ? They could be using vista/bitlocker :P

Elevator

was.deevey wrote: »

Why Aib in particular ? They could be using vista/bitlocker :P

because of this

http://www.businessandleadership.com/business/item/26593-unknown-passwords-delaying

conor.hogan.2

Unbreakable encryption is available to everyone.

Unbreakable in the sense of it is used by governments etc - so it is the best currently available.

deflemonkid

Seeing as youre on the subject of privacy, Anyone tried the disconnect extension for Chrome??
Apparently made by a former employee of google who didnt like their "Privacy" policies.

was.deevey

Ah ok .. Anglo not AIB (in the traditional sence).

In any case could be anything but even with Truecrypt which is free.. it could take hundreds of years to brute force the password depending on the number of characters used.

I wouldn't read too much into their security policy's from that article...as Conor said.

Unbreakable encryption is available to everyone.

There really is no excuse for any person, business or government body losing their data through the theft of a laptop anymore...however they should have been using a corporate software suite that contained a master password encryption reset for corporate document encryption and could track document movement & prevent data being moved outside the corporate environment rather than letting staff just set their own passwords and lock everyone else out...the eejits :P

The chrome extension is interesting - Google and Facebook are IMHO have way too much of a monopoly on millions of peoples personal information. some businesses are already using FB to check on employee's prior to hiring, no doubt this will only escalate in the next few years and i'm sure alot of people will NOT be getting a job because of it..

The interwebs never forgets peeps !