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best ANTI-THEFTWARE?

J

jmh1028

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
15
18
So my friend's 1-week-old Pro got stolen from his car and now it's gotten me all worried about my MBA.

I did some research and found the following software:

1) Prey (free & article in LifeHacker):

http://lifehacker.com/5643460/how-t...cover-your-stolen-laptop-or-android-with-prey

2) Orbicule (seen in search threads but costs $40+; would it be worth the money when compared to Prey or other software?)

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/index.html


Any other software out there? Anyone that uses these (or others) tell me about their experience?

Thank you
 
Without BIOS persistence, I would say these are worthless as a reformat or change of the harddrive removes it.

Does anyone feel otherwise?
 
ZipZap said:
Without BIOS persistence, I would say these are worthless as a reformat or change of the harddrive removes it.

Does anyone feel otherwise?
Click to expand...

This is most likely true. Albeit, that depends on how "Find my Mac" works.

I doubt even "Find my Mac" will be useful if the drive is erased or modified.

Would be surprised if it did.
 
The problem with these apps in combination with Lion is that it means you have to leave your harddrive unencrypted. Because the way FileVault2 works in Lion, it encrypts the whole disk. And this software relies on the thief actually booting into the OS and using it. They can't do that if it's encrypted because the password has to be entered before booting.

Under Snow Leopard FileVault (1) encrypted only a user's home directory so it was possible to make a guest account and leaving it unencrypted and passwordless, so the thief could use the internet and the software could call home, while still protecting your data from the thief by encrypting your personal home directory.

So now with Lion it becomes a trade-off: Protect your data well or have a chance at recovering the laptop when stolen (only under certain circumstances). Personally I'd go for the former, as a precaution against identity theft.

I wonder if Find My Mac has a solution for this (e.g. will it work even before booting). That would really solve this problem.
 
will prey work if you have a password login?

Hi
just looking at this software and it looks ideal for my new MBA. But am just thinking. If anything happened to my MBA, how will this software work, when you have a username and password, that needs to be entered before you can access the desktop etc?

thanks in advance
 
abz1981 said:
Hi
just looking at this software and it looks ideal for my new MBA. But am just thinking. If anything happened to my MBA, how will this software work, when you have a username and password, that needs to be entered before you can access the desktop etc?
thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Like I said above, it won't work in that case. The old way used to be to make a guest account to allow internet access by anyone, but you have to forgo FileVault (encryption) now with Lion since it encrypts the whole disk.
 
GekkePrutser said:
So now with Lion it becomes a trade-off: Protect your data well or have a chance at recovering the laptop when stolen (only under certain circumstances). Personally I'd go for the former, as a precaution against identity theft.
Click to expand...

If you protect your security sensitive data with encrypted sparse bundle disk images, then this isn't an issue.
 
jmh1028 said:
So my friend's 1-week-old Pro got stolen from his car and now it's gotten me all worried about my MBA.


Thank you
Click to expand...

My advice, don't leave your $1000 electronics just sitting out like your friend, and you shouldn't have to worry about it being lost or stolen.
 
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