-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

So the objective Kathy has mentioned is to:

"log into and delete the contents of the laptop's hard drive"

It would seem the contents of the hard disk is "more important" than the actual 
hardware.

In that case I would go for the encryption option. Yes it is some 
configuration, and time to wait until the disk is fully encrypted, but last 
time I did this for a work computer it took all of 4-5 hours to encrypt and was 
very reliable - the machine was dropped, put to sleep, woken up multiple times, 
and used very heavily. I would prefer relying on that rather than some OS level 
tool.

You have no guarantee any of these "track your device" tools will be 
successful, especially if they rely on the machine being powered up and 
connected to a network. 

Griffin, thanks for the link to Prey, it looks interesting. 

Bernard

On 3 Apr 2013, at 20:08, Scott Elcomb wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Katy P <katyca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What is easier for a lay person and least susceptible to a "smart" thief?
> 
> Despite what it says in my signature, I'm no thief.  That said, were I to 
> steal laptop, the first action I'd take is to remove the drive before 
> powering it up and connecting it to any network - especially the internet:
> 
> If I'm after the data, I'd want the drive sandboxed to prevent the original 
> owner from doing exactly what you're looking to do.
> 
> If I'm after the hardware, I don't care about the data and would format the 
> drive on another machine to avoid the hassles of trying to crack my way in to 
> do the same thing (format the drive).
> 
> +1 for encryption from me.
> 
> -- 
>   Scott Elcomb
>   @psema4 on Twitter / Identi.ca / Github & more
> 
>   Atomic OS: Self Contained Microsystems
>   http://code.google.com/p/atomos/
> 
>   Member of the Pirate Party of Canada
>   http://www.pirateparty.ca/
> --
> Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by 
> emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech

- --------------------------------------
Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb

IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.17 (Darwin)
Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJRXKnbAAoJENsz1IO7MIrrus4H/AzT4Pue4r+XHBNj/LeJMAsz
yWpdqHqKfuBXADaAW5Wyjhif3IpbxH6GzU1YG9vP9M6zDwucqBArJcOJ2xBmHZV7
yl/tdJs3ODw9ftHNums4CI8KOKnNl8Uqs53SpXWAhr7CNIOeJGgpLiKTwDu6tAZi
ADH50yLHMY94KT0BV549Yo+yo+MIcwxomj7fI8TTS8VQA9kzkR4WcpiMGU7sRqOL
FQtYL2Ap1vjJoI1+Ap/3I06fIqb3IubEelxO1gO3ix+R9fFhp2M5oIYouQXfUKnd
6mUVP3miAq4Yi7Gk3E3F0tSjlbALlSC52Otr9FRr0L2RPuif+BM55VKJB3938AA=
=ujXj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--
Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing 
moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at 
https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech

Reply via email to