I am pleased to announce that GadgetTrak PhoneBak has been announced as an AT&T Certified Solution . Through rigorous testing  on many different devices, AT&T has approved GadgetTrak’s anti-theft software for mobile phones for use on their network, as well as for their Enterprise customers.

AT&T requires that all software produced for resale or distribution pass Certification testing prior to be deployed on the AT&T’s wireless network. AT&T Certification testing is done to confirm that the solution performance, user interface, data integrity, application security, and wireless data transmission efficiency all meet or exceed AT&T usability guidelines.

Since GadgetTrak’s launch of our theft recover software for iPods, flash drives, digital cameras and other USB storage devices, we have had quite a few recoveries for our subscribers, we currently have a 90% recovery rate for devices reported stolen to us by our subscribers. Here are just a few recoveries we would like highlight.

Newmarket, Ontario iPod Recover

In Nemarket, Ontario an iPod was stolen from one of our subscribers Geoff, who had installed the GadgetTrak USB software on a friends iPod, as he had an extra license. His friends iPod was stolen a few months later.

Geoff logged in and flagged the device as stolen as well as notified us directly. Reviewing the case, the iPod in question was stolen in a high school so we assumed that the thief was a fellow student in the school. After a short amount of time a connection was made with forensic data. With the information provided by the GadgetTrak agent software we were able to work with the school administrators to identify the student who had stolen the iPod, the iPod was recovered from the student and it matched the serial number of the iPod registered with us. The iPod was given back to the owner.

“Great news! We recovered the stolen ipod. The thief was confronted with the evidence, and sure enough, the serial numbers matched. We printed out the GadgetTrak report, and that was just about all the evidence they needed. Just wanted to thank you again for your great service! Apparently the principal, school administrators, advisers, and students are all looking into GadgetTrak after hearing our success story.

Dublin, Ohio Stolen iPod Nano Recovery

Another more recent recovery was in in Dublin, Ohio. A GadgetTrak subscriber Michele, had installed GadgetTrak USB on her step-daughters iPod Nano. On October 18th the iPod was stolen by a fellow student at her high school. The GadgetTrak sticker had been peeled off and the serial number of the iPod was even filed off, however the GadgetTrak USB software gave the thief away.

After talking with the Dublin, Ohio police department we learned that not only was our subscriber’s iPod Nano recovered , but also a large cache of other stolen property. Our subscriber was very pleased with our software and service:

“My stepdaughter got her iPod back today, she said the kid that took it plugged it in and that GadgetTrak saw it and worked with the school. That was AWESOME! You have one very happy teenage girl!” – Michele

Portland, Oregon iPod Recovery

Mario Xavier in Oregon lost his iPod and had it recovered thanks to GadgetTrak. Mario was quite surprised when we called him and told him we knew the whereabouts of his iPod. Within 24 hours Mario had his iPod back in his hands and we received an email from him thanking us “I just wanted to let you all know how glad I am regarding your service. I just got my iPod back and it’s all due to GadgetTrak. Thanks again!”.

Toronto, Flash Drive Recovery

One of GadgetTrak’s customers, Ian from Toronto has successfully recovered his missing USB thumb drive. Ian left his USB thumb drive in the back of a computer in a computer lab. The drive had quite a bit of his work and personal files on it and he was not sure if it was stolen or not. One of his instructors actually found the drive and brought it back to his house, as it was the end of the day. Ian flagged the device in our system when he noticed it was missing that same day. His instructor plugged the device into his computer which triggered the agent and sent Ian information regarding the connection.

Luckily the device was returned the next day to Ian by the instructor, so no further action needed to be taken. Ian told his instructor as well as the rest of his class that the device was being tracked by GadgetTrak and as Ian tells us “they were pretty amazed”.

The recent British Crime Survey suggests that one in eight children aged 11 to 16 has been the victim of a gadget theft.

Children under 16 are to be included in the British Crime Survey for the first time, the home secretary has announced.

While expected to cause a rise in crime statistics, Jacqui Smith said the move would offer an understanding of how crime affects young people.

Children’s groups want youngsters to be included in the BCS and Ms Smith has asked for views on how to survey them.

Source: BBC

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. —  A Westchester woman who had her laptop stolen was able to connect to the computer, photograph two suspects and file the photos to police.

Using technology similar to GadgetTrak Verey white Plains Police say they used the photos to arrest 23-year-old Edmon Shahikian of Katonah and 20-year-old Ian Frias of the Bronx Wednesday night. Police say they recovered most of the $5,000 worth of electronics stolen from the woman’s White Plains apartment back on April 27.

Police say the woman got a call from a friend asking if she was online.

The victim said no and was told by the friend that her computer showed her as being on the Internet.

At that point the victim signed onto another computer and used the “Back to My Mac” program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop was on the Web.

She then used the stolen computer’s camera to photograph Shahikian.

A Mexican press attache was caught on camera placing several BlackBerry devices into his pocket during a press event in New Orleans. Due to heightened security, all officials were required to place their cell phones on a table before entering the meeting room. While the meeting was underway, Rafael Quintero Curiel, who was serving as Mexico’s lead press advance, slipped outside and began pocketing the handsets. Whoops. When the meeting was over, several attendees noticed that their ‘Berrys had gone missing, and alerted the secret service. Curiel had already began driving to the airport when the Secret Service ordered him back to the press area. When confronted with the tapes, Curiel “said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.” Uh, ‘kay? No word on whether the US plans to pursue legal action. On another note, why exactly are White House staffers placing their BlackBerrys unattended in an easily accessed area as a matter of “common practice”?

Via Engadget

GadgetTrak has recovered another iPod for a subscriber this month with another pending. Mario Xavier in Oregon lost his iPod and had it recovered using the GadgetTrak service last week. Mario was quite surprised when we called him and told him we knew the whereabouts of his iPod. Within 24 hours Mario had his iPod back in his hands and we received an email from him a few days ago “I just wanted to let you all know how glad I am regarding your service. I just got my iPod back and it’s all due to GadgetTrak. Thanks again!”.

We also have another iPod recovery still in progress, connection data was sent to us after an iPod was stolen in a middle school, a police report has been filed with the GadgetTrak data collected. We were able to provide detailed information regarding the whereabouts of the device and who had it, the school administrators and police are investigating further.

Since GadgetTrak launched its patent-pending system for recovering portable electronics last March, we have been happy to report several recoveries for our subscribers. The recoveries that we are able to report on the site are published with the permission of our subscribers, there have been quite a few others in the past few months and not just iPods.

Over the past year we have also made vast improvements to our  GadgetTrak USB software including the ability to get around common firewalls and additional measures to avoid detection on multiple operating systems.  We have also greatly improved our technology to protect our subscribers privacy, such as strong encryption of data sent between the host system and our server.  GadgetTrak now has two patents filed for our theft recovery solutions with more innovative solutions on the way.  GadgetTrak USB is also now being bundled with Seagate/Maxtor external hard drives, providing additional protection for their consumers.

….

Peter Gabriel’s online music empire is reduced to a holding page, following the theft of servers from his web host over the weekend.

According to the web monitoring firm Netcraft, Gabriel’s servers are hosted by Rednet Ltd, although that appears to be a defunct brand of a UK company called Opal Telecom, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse.

But details are sketchy and as it’s a public holiday in the UK, we’ll fill in the gaps tomorrow.

In the meantime here is the message posted at time of writing on the web-savvy musician’s site, PeterGabriel.com.

Source: The Register