AUSTRALIA STOLEN COMPUTER TRACKING TECHNOLOGY Laptoptracker | Software To Track Laptops And PCs | Jon Foster:


To catch your own thief
CHALPAT SONTI
September 29, 2009 - 7:46AM
Canning Vale security consultant Jon Foster has developed software to track stolen computers.

Canning Vale security consultant Jon Foster has developed software to track stolen computers. Photo: Chalpat Sonti

Victim of a laptop - or PC - theft? Well you might be able to catch the culprit yourself now, thanks to software developed by a Perth man.

Jon Foster's latest venture, Laptoptracker, not only tracks a stolen machine, the address of anyone using it and - for those computers with built-in cameras - takes photos of the user, but it also allows the hardware's rightful owner remote access to their files.

Mr Foster, whose Canning Vale company Surveillance Systems Australia specialises in CCTV surveillance in the retail sector, said he decided to develop the software about a year ago, after increasing numbers of clients reported thefts of their laptops.

After spending a significant five-figure sum on its development - including getting the software written in Europe - Mr Foster claims he has developed a unique product.

Laptoptracker does not need to work through a central third-party server, enabling victims to receive updates on where their machine is through e-mail accounts.

'You can track it to a physical address and most importantly you get an actual name of an account holder using it through their accounts wither through a physical internet connection or wireless network,' he said.

'It gives you a report including an IP address as well as a network IP address so you can track it through an organisation.'

For machines equipped with cameras, it will also take pictures of whoever is using it, what they are looking at and will send those pictures to the owner.

And unlike systems using thiird-party access, only the owner can see what is going on.

He acknowledged his - and other - software would not work if the thief simply took the machine and had its hard drive reformatted. But Mr Foster said with most machines ending up being on-sold 'off the back of a truck' this was unlikely to occur often.

Apart from the hassle of losing a machine, there was an even larger problem for victims, so Laptoptracker enabled remote access to files, Mr Foster said.

'People don't realise it's what's in their laptop that's of value, not the laptop itself,' he said.

Additional features would be added in the next few weeks, including a keylogger to enable victims to see everything taking place on their machine, an 'over the shoulder cam' to take screenshots and a Skype application so victims could call the thief and have a chat.

A Mac version was also likely within six months.

In August, a porn-surfing Melbourne laptop thief was nabbed using software from Sydney-based company Navigatum.

Two months earlier, an Apple tool called 'Find My iPhone' helped a US iPhone user track down his stolen phone without needing to call police.

In April, a US woman checking her video surveillance system through the internet while at work caught four people robbing her house. She was able to watch while 18 officers surrounded the house and nabbed the looters.

Last year in New York, police arrested two men and recovered stolen computers and electronic devices after the owner of one of the stolen laptops was able to connect remotely to her Apple MacBook and photograph the thief.

And when an engineering student's house was burgled in Philadelphia last year, he published clues on a website and readers tracked down the thieves and seized some of the stolen goods.