UK COMPUTER TRACKING TECHNOLOGY ADDED BY SCHOOL SYSTEM Cambs Times - Burgled school to pioneer laptop tracking system: "A FENLAND school burgled twice in the space of six months when over £20,000 worth of computers was stolen, is to pioneer a new tracking system to reduce laptop thefts.

'I hope it spells the end of computer theft from schools,' said county councillor John Powley, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services.

Education ICT Service, a business unit of Cambridgeshire County Council has joined forces with Dell to install the software.

It will be launched today (Fri) at Kingsfield School, Chatteris, where 15 laptops were stolen in June, just six months after 16 laptops had previously been stolen. "

Computrace is a theft protection service that tracks, locates and recovers stolen computers. Undetectable and irremovable software is installed and works behind the scenes to contact the Computrace Monitoring Centre and, ifstolen, reports its location.

Education ICT and the Computrace Recovery Team then tracks the equipment and works with the police to retrieve it. High profile notices will be displayed at schools where the system is in operation.

Cllr Powley added: " The software is embedded, undetectable and non removable, and thieves need to understand that any IT equipment they steal could have this software installed without their knowledge.

"The theft of computers from schools holds up vital education for the county's schoolchildren, so I am delighted that we have teamed up with Dell for this initiative.

Councillor Alan Melton, whose daughter attends Kingsfield, described the thieves who stole the computers as "lower than low life.