Computrace Lo Jack For Mac

[ChrisFromCanada]

In July Computrace launched Lo Jack for Laptops for Mac, a theft solution. I was wondering if anyone had tried it and can tell me how well it works. My concern is that it is simple phone home software that can easily be eliminated by a OS reinstall.

Your input is appreciated.

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

I emailed Computrace's Tech support and figured out more about how it works. The email is as follows:

Hello,

I am strongly considering purchasing your product for Mac and
recommending it to several friends, however it is unclear to me exactly
how the solution works so I just wanted to quickly clarify a few things:

1. On the Mac is Lo Jack just a piece of installed software that can be
removed by being deleted or is it rooted into the OS?

2. Is Lo Jack non-functional if the Mac OS is reinstalled?

3. Is the outgoing and incoming traffic of the daily connection to the
monitoring centre detectable by simple tools on the Mac like Little
Snitch?

Thanks for your time,

- Chris

Hi Chris,

1. LoJack on the Mac is a piece of software that is installed
transparently into the OS. You don't see any program folders or any
uninstall utility.

2. LoJack will be disabled on a Mac after formatting because there's no
way to prevent formatting on a Mac. However majority of Mac users do
not format their laptop which is why we've been having very very good
success rates on recovering these.

3. LoJack on it's normal daily functions does not have any incoming
traffic whatsoever. The only traffic is outgoing and it happens once
every 24 hours. Unfortunately any monitoring software if used correctly
can detect any outgoing connection and Little Snitch although not tested
I believe it will show as well although so far we've not had any people
mentioning any problems regarding this.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please do
not hesitate to contact us.

Our tech support line is 1-877-337-0337. Representatives are available
from 6:00AM to 6:00PM PST Monday to Friday.

Regards,

Andrew Leung
Technical Support Representative
Computrace LoJack for laptops
Absolute Software Corporation
www.lojackforlaptops.com

So my conclusion is that if my Apple Laptop is stolen and gets into the hands of anyone with any kind of Apple Know How its game over. Not the most useful product ever IMO.

 

[emw]

I know there is another product out there that is similar in function, and it was discussed around here recently. I'll try and dig it up.

In the meantime, you can essentially disable formatting by using the Open Firmware Password on your Mac, which disallows startup from CD or any other disk without entering a password. This would prevent them from wiping your Mac.

The tech guy at the place wasn't real helpful (or "salesy"). I like the way he essentially admits he thinks the product is not extremely useful.