iCloud find my mac

[andste]

Hello, I am new in mac world so if will be stupid question I am sorry.

I am using OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. There is program iCloud in Settings. I configured program "Find my Mac". And have a question if the mac will be stollen the theft can sign out from my account and i couldnt find my mac throught www.icloud.com web site ? what is the situation ?

Thank you!

 

[andste]

Any help ???

 

[Weaselboy]

Hello, I am new in mac world so if will be stupid question I am sorry.

I am using OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. There is program iCloud in Settings. I configured program "Find my Mac". And have a question if the mac will be stollen the theft can sign out from my account and i couldnt find my mac throught www.icloud.com web site ? what is the situation ?

Thank you!

You are correct. With a default install it is pretty easy for a thief to just disable Find my Mac. The solution is to turn on FileVault2 encryption. This encrypts the drive so nobody can login and turn off Find my Mac and also provides a open "Guest" account at the login screen. The idea is that the thief will use the guest account to get on the Internet and the location of your computer would then be picked up by Find my Mac.

 

[switon]

RE: local law enforcement ...

Hi,

Weaselboy has provided a well-stated solution to not allowing a perpetrator to switch off Find My Mac.

I just wanted to add that it really depends upon your local law enforcement agency as to whether "knowing" where your stolen Mac is located will be any help to you. Some law agencies will act on this information, others will not.

There was a recent case of a person "pinging", meaning the pinging noise á la a submarine's sonar signal (think Hunt for Red October), his computer with law enforcement outside listening to the "pinging" sound. The computer was recovered, but then the perpetrator claimed illegal search. I believe that the judge ruled that this was no different than a parent calling a kidnapped child's name and having the child call out to the parent, so it was not ultimately ruled as an illegal search and seizure. But it was intriguing that initially there was a concern.

Regards,
Switon

P.S. Just in case you also use VPN, you should know that Find My Mac interferes with the VPN service.

 

[andste]

Thank you guys for a very useful information!

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And what will be your opinion for iPhone ? How they can be safe of turning off find my iPhone ?

 

[switon]

RE: many robbers...

Hi,

I think that many times the casual robber doesn't understand much about how the computer/iphone/ipad works, and thus the thief just merrily goes about using the stolen goods without thinking. That is how the perpetrator was caught in the case I referred to in my earlier post. As I recall, the perpetrator was actually only a few doors down from the victim, and he was using the stolen machine in his own house.

More sophisticated theft operations, however, will never switch on the computer in the first place. They will open up the machine and replace the hard drive before ever switching it on, so in this case you are just out-of-luck, as they say.

I think the Find My Mac/Find My Phone was meant more to find out where you misplaced your phone, although simply calling your phone would work just as well. Therefore Find My ___ is probably really meant as a pretty cool tool that is fun to show your buddies, as in, "Hey look guys, my wife's macbook is at Starbucks right now!" --- of course, never tell your wife or you'll be in deep doodoo (just teasing).

Switon

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you guys for a very useful information!

----------

And what will be your opinion for iPhone ? How they can be safe of turning off find my iPhone ?

The best you can do there is turn on Restrictions so Find my phone cannot be turned off.

 

[andste]

Thank you Weaselboy for very useful information, I think it will help and for many people!

 

[andste]

Hi,

I think that many times the casual robber doesn't understand much about how the computer/iphone/ipad works, and thus the thief just merrily goes about using the stolen goods without thinking. That is how the perpetrator was caught in the case I referred to in my earlier post. As I recall, the perpetrator was actually only a few doors down from the victim, and he was using the stolen machine in his own house.

More sophisticated theft operations, however, will never switch on the computer in the first place. They will open up the machine and replace the hard drive before ever switching it on, so in this case you are just out-of-luck, as they say.

I think the Find My Mac/Find My Phone was meant more to find out where you misplaced your phone, although simply calling your phone would work just as well. Therefore Find My ___ is probably really meant as a pretty cool tool that is fun to show your buddies, as in, "Hey look guys, my wife's macbook is at Starbucks right now!" --- of course, never tell your wife or you'll be in deep doodoo (just teasing).

Switon

Thanks Switon, yeah so I guess this luck if the thieft will be not so smart it is possible he will not check this feature, o will be smart the luck will turn off...