Comments on: “Lojack” tracking technology for your laptop http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/ Sean Tierney's Blog Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:58:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Sean Tierney http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-374667 Sean Tierney Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:10:31 +0000 #comment-374667 Pranav,<br>I'm not sure what you mean- it calls in daily to the <a href="http://Absolute.com" rel="nofollow">Absolute.com</a> datacenter and checks to see if the laptop has been flagged stolen. If so, then it bumps it's call frequency to every 15min. The remote wipe command can only be issued from the datacenter and takes double signoff from two higher-ups within Absolute who must verify written and verbal consent from the laptop's owner. Are you asking if the remote wipe command can be somehow spoofed to the laptop? I do not know the answer to that questions since I don't know the internal workings but I imagine anything can be hacked theoretically but the laptop only calls their datacenter for instructions so you'd have to somehow intercept that encrypted communication and respond with the correct encryped instructions containing the unique key for that laptop - very unlikely.<br><br>sean Pranav,
I'm not sure what you mean- it calls in daily to the Absolute.com datacenter and checks to see if the laptop has been flagged stolen. If so, then it bumps it's call frequency to every 15min. The remote wipe command can only be issued from the datacenter and takes double signoff from two higher-ups within Absolute who must verify written and verbal consent from the laptop's owner. Are you asking if the remote wipe command can be somehow spoofed to the laptop? I do not know the answer to that questions since I don't know the internal workings but I imagine anything can be hacked theoretically but the laptop only calls their datacenter for instructions so you'd have to somehow intercept that encrypted communication and respond with the correct encryped instructions containing the unique key for that laptop – very unlikely.

sean

]]> By: Scrollin’ On Dubs » Blog Archive » Life-changing realizations from working the past week in Cabo http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-75329 Scrollin’ On Dubs » Blog Archive » Life-changing realizations from working the past week in Cabo Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:47:53 +0000 #comment-75329 [...] Making myself traceable - you want to hope for the best but plan for the worst. In the event that I were to turn up missing in some obscure foreign town, I would want to have an Onstar (or a "SeanStar" as the case may be). The method I’ve come up with is to use the Absolute.com laptop tracking software which dials in daily and give my family instructions on how they can find the last IP address it called in from in the event that something happens. I recently wrote an article for Law Office Computing on this software and it works really well. At least that would provide a physical address from which to commence a search in the event that something bad were to happen. [...] [...] Making myself traceable – you want to hope for the best but plan for the worst. In the event that I were to turn up missing in some obscure foreign town, I would want to have an Onstar (or a "SeanStar" as the case may be). The method I’ve come up with is to use the Absolute.com laptop tracking software which dials in daily and give my family instructions on how they can find the last IP address it called in from in the event that something happens. I recently wrote an article for Law Office Computing on this software and it works really well. At least that would provide a physical address from which to commence a search in the event that something bad were to happen. [...]

]]> By: Sean Tierney http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Sean Tierney Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:04:43 +0000 #comment-39 Pranav, I'm not sure what you mean- it calls in daily to the Absolute.com datacenter and checks to see if the laptop has been flagged stolen. If so, then it bumps it's call frequency to every 15min. The remote wipe command can only be issued from the datacenter and takes double signoff from two higher-ups within Absolute who must verify written and verbal consent from the laptop's owner. Are you asking if the remote wipe command can be somehow spoofed to the laptop? I do not know the answer to that questions since I don't know the internal workings but I imagine anything can be hacked theoretically but the laptop only calls their datacenter for instructions so you'd have to somehow intercept that encrypted communication and respond with the correct encryped instructions containing the unique key for that laptop - very unlikely. sean Pranav,
I’m not sure what you mean- it calls in daily to the Absolute.com datacenter and checks to see if the laptop has been flagged stolen. If so, then it bumps it’s call frequency to every 15min. The remote wipe command can only be issued from the datacenter and takes double signoff from two higher-ups within Absolute who must verify written and verbal consent from the laptop’s owner. Are you asking if the remote wipe command can be somehow spoofed to the laptop? I do not know the answer to that questions since I don’t know the internal workings but I imagine anything can be hacked theoretically but the laptop only calls their datacenter for instructions so you’d have to somehow intercept that encrypted communication and respond with the correct encryped instructions containing the unique key for that laptop – very unlikely.

sean

]]> By: Pranav http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Pranav Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:45:17 +0000 #comment-38 What if an exploit is found for this program? How easy is it to update? What if an exploit is found for this program? How easy is it to update?

]]> By: Sean Tierney http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Sean Tierney Mon, 31 Oct 2005 04:49:32 +0000 #comment-37 Chris, yeah, it blew me away too. Without divulging the proprietary details they explained to me on how it works under the hood, it's basically hidden in a spot and has the capability to "bootstrap" itself back to working condition in the event that it gets damaged or partially removed. Unless you know exactly what you're looking for and can surgically remove it, the only way to kill it is a DoD-grade wipe of the hard drive (that or obviously yank the hard drive and replace it). Pretty amazing stuff. They've also done deals with some of the major OEM's and are making it even more bulletproof by integrating it into the BIOS. A little "Big Brother-ish" but I suppose it's cool as long as YOU are Big Brother ;-) sean Chris,
yeah, it blew me away too. Without divulging the proprietary details they explained to me on how it works under the hood, it’s basically hidden in a spot and has the capability to "bootstrap" itself back to working condition in the event that it gets damaged or partially removed. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for and can surgically remove it, the only way to kill it is a DoD-grade wipe of the hard drive (that or obviously yank the hard drive and replace it). Pretty amazing stuff. They’ve also done deals with some of the major OEM’s and are making it even more bulletproof by integrating it into the BIOS. A little "Big Brother-ish" but I suppose it’s cool as long as YOU are Big Brother ;-)

sean

]]> By: Chris http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2005/10/31/lojack-tracking-technology-for-your-laptop/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Chris Mon, 31 Oct 2005 03:59:56 +0000 #comment-36 That's really cool. I saw a product advertised at CompUSA yesterday for about $20. I had no idea this stuff was so foolproof. So basically even if you formatted the drive and reinstalled WIndows it would recover itself? That's awesome. That’s really cool. I saw a product advertised at CompUSA yesterday for about $20. I had no idea this stuff was so foolproof. So basically even if you formatted the drive and reinstalled WIndows it would recover itself? That’s awesome.

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