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Thread: Laptop security idea

  1. #1
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    Laptop security idea

    I'm sure some of you know that if your laptop comes with a built-in webcam, you can use it to take a picture of someone as your computer boots up and sends the image to a server. But, finding a reliable service or having a server to upload the images to can be a problem for some people - especially if the thief is not near an internet connection.

    In my opinion, having a computer with a login password may be useful to prevent someone from logging in and taking information easily, but with a few hacks they'll get in eventually and be able to take all your information, in which encryption is useless.

    So, lets just say you are the only user of your laptop, and you have a working built-in webcam. If you were to have your computer log in automatically, my idea is the webcam would take a picture of you and with facial recognition it would automatically shut down if it didn't see you as the current user. Use this with a tracking system and you may be able to find your laptop without any harm being done to it.

    Unfortunately I don't do much programming, so I can't develop something like this. I hope someone reading this post can develop it, or knows someone who can.

  2. #2
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    maybe you could buy more expensive laptop and have fingerprint recognition on it?
    i dont have camera or fingerprint on my laptop, so i dont have much experience with this, but it seems like a good idea...
    i dont know what do you mean by tracking your computer? gps or ip address? maybe you can just keep an eye on it

  3. #3
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    The solution that you propose would only have limited usefulness (possibly not worth the effort to develop). If you are interested in keeping un-knowledgeable friends and family off the computer, it could work (might as well just user login id/pwd in this case though). However any semi-skilled linux user could by-pass such a program with a little time and physical access to the PC.

    If you are truly interested in keeping your data out of the hands of others, the best option is full disk encryption whereby a password is required at boot before the hard drive will be unencrypted. There are programs available that can do this; it is not provided out of the box.

    The other school of thought is for those who would like to recover their PC if it is ever stolen. There are programs out there that will use the camera or other information available to the PC and "phone home" if the PC is ever stolen and proper credentials are not met. Thus you could identify by IP address, screen-shots taken by the camera, etc if the PC is stolen and then turned on and plugged into the Internet. Again, these mechanisms are somewhat easily bypassed by a skilled user, but do give you a chance of recovering stolen equipment.

    The only way that your solution could work is if it was built into the firmware/pc itself. Such mechanisms do exist and are not out of the realm of possibility, but you would have to be in pretty tight with the hardware vendor to make it happen. As an example, Dell has a TPM platform that ties together biometrics with the BIOS and software within the OS also to allow you to boot the PC and subsequently into Windows via biometric scanning.

    Pretty cool stuff and it's something that I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of in the future. You might want to patent your idea and begin negotiations with the hardware vendors

  4. #4
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    @xhalarin
    I see what you mean but i wasn't really referring to my idea as being the only form of security, because you're right, it is kinda useless by itself. But, like I said before, if you were to do a tracking system, screenshot, and mugshot and THEN shut down the computer, you'd decrease the chances of someone getting into your stuff and you'll be able to find them as they attempt to figure out how to stop it.

    keep in mind that most people don't use linux. If someone steals a computer, i'm sure its the last thing they expect to encounter. therefore, while being unprepared, having a combination of security measures will greatly annoy a thief. As I see it, if i can't get my laptop back, i'd prefer it to be useless to whoever stole it. Currently on my laptop I put a password on BIOS, there is no CD drive, and the bootloader is configured to only boot my pci-e based SSD. This way, someone can't easily install their own OS.

    I do currently use an IP tracking system, and I use a fingerprint reader to access certain things, but if my laptop were to be stolen, I'd like to annoy and frustrate the thief as much as possible.

  5. #5
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    I've said it before: physical access = root access.

    Even if they didn't want your data, they would probably just wipe the drive. There are ways around BIOS passwords.
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  6. #6
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    I've said it before: physical access = root access.
    Says it all.

    If a thief can not at once make use of a stolen laptop then I expect it will be discarded without too much thought, after all she would not like to be associated with stolen goods any longer than is absolutely necessary.

  7. #7
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    Hi,

    http://preyproject.com/ might be of interest to Linux and Windows laptop owners?

    My regards

  8. #8
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    If someone has stolen your laptop and brought it somewhere else, and you have a program that takes a picture to send it - what internet connection is it going to use? They can't log in to choose a wireless network to connect to.

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    Thumbs down Re: Laptop security idea

    oh whatever, automatic picture taking every time you load.... and automatically uploaded to server... dang, would have to brush my hair before i turn on computer in the morning... oh yeah, and put clothes on... how 'bout naw

  10. #10
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    Re: Laptop security idea

    Quote Originally Posted by Agent ME View Post
    If someone has stolen your laptop and brought it somewhere else, and you have a program that takes a picture to send it - what internet connection is it going to use? They can't log in to choose a wireless network to connect to.
    thats exactly the point of what my topic is about - if you can't track them, you can at least annoy them

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