NORTH CAROLINA LOJACK OFFERING SOFTWARE TO RECOVER STOLEN LAPTOPSNews 14 Carolina | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | LoJack now offers software to help you recover your stolen laptopLoJack now offers software to help you recover your stolen laptop
7/19/2005 5:25 PM
By: Adam Balkin, NY1

As laptop computers become more powerful, more of us are using them for day-to-day business. But bringing your business with you everywhere means a greater likelihood it can get stolen.

You can't really say it's “like” LoJack for your computer, because it actually is LoJack for your computer. The name that's synonymous with finding stolen cars is teaming up with the folks at Absolute Software for CompuTrace: LoJack for Laptops.

“About 600,000 laptops are stolen in the United States every year, so it's a big problem,” says John Livingston of Absolute Software Corp. “It's right across - it effects corporations, educational, government and consumers as well. Once you've installed the product it automatically will dial into a monitoring service on a daily basis and just go to sleep if the machine hasn't been stolen. If it has been stolen you let us know. We flag that particular serial number in our data center, the next time it calls in it automatically sends an email page to our recovery team, we then get the subpoena and then with law enforcement we'll get it back for you anywhere in the U.S. or Canada.”

CompuTrace, without the LoJack name, has been around for several years, as have several others that work in much the same way, including zTrace, CyberAngel and Stealth Signal. They all promise to stick to your computer even if the hard drive is reformatted or the operating system re-installed.

Keep in mind, though, there is the distinct possibility that when you're computer calls in it'll be somewhere where it's tough to get police involvement, maybe overseas in another country. But still, most of these programs can help allay your worst fears.

“If a PC ends up in a jurisdiction where we can't physically get it back, we can delete all the data on the computer,” says Livingston. “So if you have confidential information or files on the computer, we can make sure that information has been destroyed for you.”

At around $100 for three years of protection - less for less - some techies say it's much the same as buying insurance for your laptop.

“It's a great thing to have for like $50. Take a shot,” says Dan Evans of DigitalLife Magazine. “It they've taken your $3,000 laptop, what's $50 at that point?”

However, if you simply leave your laptop somewhere by mistake but can't remember where, the software does you no good. Whether through broadband or dialup, the computer needs to connect to the Internet to be found.