Laptop Stolen

claw14

Hey folks,
Just putting the word out there. I had a Laptop stolen over the weekend in the Galway area. It was a Blue Dell Inspiron 1100. I know it's a long shot but if ya happen to get offered one in dodgy circumstances, ye may think of me. Also stolen was a Fuji Finepix A303. Bastards !!!!!!!

Gandalf23

Sorry to hear that man... would be my worst nightmare. In what circumstances was it stolen?

neon_glows

Have you a Picture? Did it have windows xp? What was the cd key or maybe the start of the cd key so if its seen some one will be able to recognis it, im in waterford so if i hear anything here ill let you know!

By the way have you any insurance? House insurance or car insurance or anything that you maybe able to claim using?

- Nicky

Nukem

Thats crap.
Heard today from buddy who lived with two guys had there lappies were lifted with their college FYP's on it - harsh. Hope ya catch the scumbag.

Nukem

irlrobins

neon_glows wrote:

By the way have you any insurance? House insurance or car insurance or anything that you maybe able to claim using?

A lot of contents insurance specifically don't cover laptop theft. Know of one girl who tried to get laptop insurance as part of her apt cover and not one company would insure it. They're just too easy to steal and are tempting target.

Plus they prob had people dropping it down the stairs and then claiming it was stolen.

But yeah, OP have it insured?

neon_glows

Actually iv a queit expensive laptop, bought it second hand, is there anywhere i can get it insured?

maidhc

Nukem wrote:

Heard today from buddy who lived with two guys had there lappies were lifted with their college FYP's on it - harsh

Not having a backup of the contents of a laptop (or any computer) is plain silly, inexcusable, and cannot be justified on any grounds. I know I could live if my laptop was stolen, but i'd freak if I lost a weeks work over it (even if my laptop is worth a lot more than my miserable weeks work!! )

Wouldn't it make sense though if someone set up a lost/stolen property website where people could enter identifying characteristics of stuff, and people could refer to it before they buy the gear. Maybe.

Nukem

maidhc wrote:

Wouldn't it make sense though if someone set up a lost/stolen property website where people could enter identifying characteristics of stuff, and people could refer to it before they buy the gear. Maybe.

That is a damn tasty idea. It would take some amount of organizing though.

Nukem

smeggle

not nice - know it's bit like shutting the door after the horse has bolted but a future tip for you..

Password your bios and disable boot from 'cd-rom' on laptops and both cd-rom/Floppy on desktops. Yes I know there are ways to get by it but most scumbag opportunist thieves won't know this more than likely and just want to get rid of it.

Eventually though there gonna try wiping the disk and have a pig of a job doing it. Because you also utilise this tool Cryptainer = it creates a 'Virtual Drive' that is encrypted and well this bit on there site is true

a file that is encrypted with a strong encryption algorithm, for example Blowfish 128 bit that Cryptainer™ LE uses, is statistically impregnable against brute force attacks. It would take more than the age of universe for all the computers in existence to break this encrypted file!

To my knowledge and I track news on Blowfish regularly, it hasn't been beaten yet. Put all your sensitive stuff in that and whilst you may lose/and or have your stuff nicked, you can say with good certainty that your sensitive stuff is safe. It also makes a system re-install that much harder to do, something to do with the encryption and how the program runs.

Couple of tips that renders the laptop pretty much worthless in the long term - there probably gonna need a replacement drive anyway with the above...

Hey - you may not be able to stop the thieving gits but you can make life as hard as possible for them to make any money of your kit - use some computer skullduggery against them. write a little bios virus that executes on a system re-install if you don't adjust a setting. Have it set to dial home via the newly installed operating system would be a good one.

Doesn't help you I know but it may others - heaven forbid it happening to anyone...

zuma

Dont bother with Cryptainer as 128bit Blowfish is not as impregnable as you might think.

Try out:
DriveCrypt
if you want pure security.

One of the choices for encryption is Triple Blowfish with 1344bit encryption!!!

claw14

Thanks for the replies.
Was away for the weekend and the scumbag came in the front door, yes FRONT DOOR. Just broke the lock !!!!!! And I know, before you start I shoud have had an alarm, well I do now, Horse bolted and all that.
It's noit really the laptop issue at the moment, it's the fact that the w@nker went through everything.
Oh well,,,,,,,Double barrell is the answer the next time (In jest)
And to all those who say you should have done this and that, well thanks but it doesn't help.

CyberGhost

I feel very sorry for you claw, that impudent b**t**d! do you live in a bad area or something? I mean to walk through the front door!

smeggle wrote:

Password your bios and disable boot from 'cd-rom' on laptops and both cd-rom/Floppy on desktops. Yes I know there are ways to get by it

well I know that with cd-rom/floppy, you can load a program which will override the protection but just for the sake of interest how do you override it, it you can't load anything? reset cmos? and what's he gonna do about a password protected hard drive?

smeggle wrote:

Eventually though there gonna try wiping the disk and have a pig of a job doing it. Because you also utilise this tool Cryptainer = it creates a 'Virtual Drive'

It also makes a system re-install that much harder to do, something to do with the encryption and how the program runs.

that looks interesting, Thanks!, but is it safe? what if it corrupts/deletes some partition? wouldn't want to risk that. Also it taking over the whole disk, how the hell to get rid of it, if you don't want it anymore? say, you installed it, and then wiped the partition and forgot to un-install it, BAM![/QUOTE]

smeggle wrote:

write a little bios virus that executes on a system re-install if you don't adjust a setting. Have it set to dial home via the newly installed operating system would be a good one.

lol good idea

zuma wrote:

Dont bother with Cryptainer as 128bit Blowfish is not as impregnable as you might think.

Try out:
DriveCrypt
if you want pure security.

One of the choices for encryption is Triple Blowfish with 1344bit encryption!!!

That sounds good too

Thanks!

btw, is that the best encryption app currently available?
I heard some good things about this one
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/pd/
haven't tried it though

doud

CyberGhost wrote:

btw, is that the best encryption app currently available?
I heard some good things about this one
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/pd/
haven't tried it though

I use TrueCrypt with is open source and free, plus has some nice features

Sorry for your loss, teaft sucks
DouD

TerrorFirmer

Think thats bad? Well, it is, but:

Where I'm from, the Local Garda sergeant had his laptop stolen from his house in the same way.

Except he was in the house at the time.

:rolleyes:

CyberGhost

doud wrote:

I use TrueCrypt with is open source and free, plus has some nice features

wow that sounds/looks very nice, Thanks!, gonna give it a try

claw14

MobileInfantry wrote:

Think thats bad? Well, it is, but:

Where I'm from, the Local Garda sergeant had his laptop stolen from his house in the same way.

Except he was in the house at the time.

:rolleyes:

Seems like the scumbags only steal to order, or at least they only take things they can get rid of very quick. There were a lot of houses done lately in the general area, but not confined to any type of estates. I don't live in a bad area just these w@nkers know no boundaries.
For your info, check the front/back door locks in your house, seems strange but a lot of new door locks are the weakest points in your house. Install extra locks !!!

Evd-Burner

****ing B**tards,itd be great if u could have sum sort of a miniture shock device put into the keyboard and touch pad and all the buttons and can only be deactivated via finger print scan....

A finger print scan like they have on the ibm laptops for logging into the computer laptop....

Think of it every time they go to type anything even a password they got a shock,even the power on key,itd would wreck there heads....

My brothers car a couple of months back was park in car park in dublin (i think its j.e.r.v.i.s centre) and the car was loft on bricks and the locks in bits the alarm was f***ed and his sound system was robbed all adding up to 2,000,not that but he had no money to get a bus or train home.....