It’s your worst nightmare come true. You leave your
laptop in your car only for a few moments, perhaps to run into the
local convenience store to get a cup of coffee or a newspaper. When you
come back, you’re horrified to discover that it’s been stolen. Or
there’s some kind of momentary distraction and when you reach for your
notebook, it’s gone.
According to law enforcement agencies that monitor
this kind of thing, computer theft is still on the rise, along with the
identity theft that usually follows the occurrence. Our portable
computers so often contain sensitive work data as well as our private
information.
Information contained in PC checkbook registers,
credit card numbers and banking data are the things identity thieves
need to make your financial life miserable for months and even years to
come. So why treat your personal computer any differently than you do
your other valuable property?
For starters, you probably have some kind of
protection in your home like a safe or an alarm system. And with
today’s wireless technology, there’s a good chance you have a GPS or
anti-theft location device in your car. So why not take advantage of
some of the newest technology to protect your mobile computer equipment?
If you’re ready to add some affordable, state-of-the-art PC protection, then you’re ready for Computrace Complete.
Computrace Complete is a total system from
that helps you to deter theft and recover your stolen computer
equipment. Consisting of two main components, Computrace Complete
begins with a low-level installation of special software that’s
completely invisible to anyone who is unauthorized. In fact, some
computer manufacturers are building this directly into the computer on
a firmware level.
After installation, the second part of the system is the monitoring service provided by
The Absolute Recovery Team is composed of people who work directly with
law enforcement agencies and provide them with both the tracking
information as well as the necessary documentation to help them procure
subpoenas and search warrants. The Absolute Recovery Team has a 90
percent recovery rate for computers that report in post-theft data to
the monitoring center.
Here’s how it works. The Computrace Complete
software is designed to check into the monitoring center once every day
although you can increase that frequency if so desired. If all is well,
then life continues as normal. In fact, you won’t even be aware that
the computer has “called home” as this is surreptitiously done in the
background while you perform your normal computing activities. If,
however, your computer was stolen, you would have called in and alerted
the recovery team center.
When the stolen computer does its routine check-in,
the monitoring center will alert it to the fact it has been stolen and
immediately query the computer for its location. If it’s a dial-up
connection, then the ANI data (that’s like a super version of caller
ID) will display the physical location of the telephone number. If the
connection is made via a broadband connection such as DSL or cable
modem, then the Internet service provider will be immediately
contacted. It won’t matter if the user is connected via a Wi-Fi
connection, as that location information is passed on as well.
In any of these cases, Absolute’s monitoring service
supplies local law enforcement with what they need to get the
subscriber’s Internet provider to release the location of the
subscriber, and it’s only a short time before they get busted.
One new feature is Computrace Complete’s ability to
instantly delete any information on the computer’s hard drive. It turns
out that many feel that once a computer is stolen, the information on
it should be immediately destroyed. You can instruct the Absolute
Recovery Team to delete anything from a single file, a folder, an
entire directory and even wipe out the Windows operating system if so
desired. All of this will happen without the thief being aware that the
action is taking place.
Of course if everything is deleted, the thief will
only know that the computer won’t run anymore for some unknown reason.
Nothing will alert them to the fact that the computer has been traced
and located. Nothing, that is, until the local fuzz kicks in their door.
I for one got a lot of satisfaction reading some of the many success stories posted up on the
website. All they need now is a copy of “Bad Boys” playing in the
background. For me, it was better than watching “Cops.” It made me feel
all warm and fuzzy just knowing those slimeballs got caught red-handed
with the stolen computers.
all of the subscription and software costs posted along with
descriptions that will help you to choose the right plan for you.
Computrace Complete is their top-of-the-line product, but you may not
need all of the services it offers. If that’s the case, you may want to
check out their “
But whatever location system you choose, you’re
going to feel a lot better if the unthinkable happens to you.
Computrace Complete sells for
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(c) 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
