A 17-year-old Lacey, Washington teen faces a charge of possession of stolen property for allegedly stealing a laptop computer containing the personal information of about 800-900 Fort Lewis soldiers. Police said it does not appear that any data on the computer has been accessed.

The teen was detained after Tumwater police uncovered items from vehicle prowls, including the laptop, Tumwater police stated. On the 4th of July an Army employee reported to Lacey police that someone had taken a laptop and a 500-gigabyte removable hard drive that he left on the seat of his truck. The employee told police there was no classified information on the computer or hard drive. Still, officials were notifying soldiers out of concern that the case might put them at risk for identity theft, post spokeswoman Catherine Caruso said.

Tumwater police say the laptop was recovered after the 17-year-old called police on July 5th to report that his wallet had been stolen. The officers reportedly found marijuana in the boy’s possession and obtained a search warrant for his car, she said. Officers allegedly found stolen property and arrested the boy on suspicion of first-degree possession of stolen property, possession of less than 40 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, she said.

The next day, Tumwater police searched a Lacey residence where the boy was staying and reportedly found more property from a number of vehicle prowls. The property included financial documents, identification, credit cards, checkbooks, cameras, cell phones and golf clubs.

This raises some serious concerns regarding military security. Granted the data was stated to not have been confidential, however that a military laptop and external hard drive was stolen from an unlocked vehicle and was fond along with other stolen property including digital cameras, cell phones and other data raises serious concerns regarding endpoint security strategies. Many IT Directors still do not register the threat posed by mobile devices and lifestyle electronic devices in their enterprise.

The police and the military got lucky with this recent recovery. However, if GadgetTrak were installed on the laptop and external hard drive as well as the other devices such as mobile phones that were discovered at the perpetrators residence, the odds of recovery would have been greater as would the speed which the devices were recovered.

CIO Magazine republished a story featuring GadgetTrak as a “Useful Tool For Road Warriors”

Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, two French exchange students who were killed in London.

We hear a lot of stories regarding  gadget thefts, from stolen laptops, iPod theft, mobile phone thefts. Some are even quite brutal where “iMuggings” occur and violence is used in the process of stealing devices. However, never have we heard of such a brutal story involving the theft of gadgets that what has occurred in London.

Two French students were brutally murdered in London, apparently in a burglary gone horribly wrong. Two Sony PSPs belonging to the two victims were stolen from their flat. The same flat was burglarized six days prior and a Packard Bell laptop was taken from the flat, police believe the two events are related as it appears whoever stole the laptop returned with an accomplice.

The two victims were bound and gagged and stabbed more than 200 times, shocking police regarding the brutal act when the bodies were discovered on Sunday night.

This is one instance where I really wished GadgetTrak  was installed on the devices, although it would not bring the victims back or help the families of the deceased, it would help identify who commited the crime and bring them to justice.

Source: The Guardian

Japan’s military has confessed to losing a USB device that contained troop deployment maps for a joint Japan-US military exercise. Stay with me here, the USB drive was stolen, recovered, then accidentally thrown away.

In February of last year, a captain of Japan’s ground forces stole the memory stick along with 2,000 yen in cash and a 10,000 yen airline coupon. Japan’s military previously announced a one month suspension for the apprehended officer for stealing the cash and coupon, but never mentioned the USB drive to the public.

According to officials , the force withheld the information because they didn’t want people on the internet searching for the data. To make matters worse a lieutenant colonel borrowed this very USB device and lent it to a sergeant first class. The sergeant left it on his desk, where it was then accidentally tossed IN THE GARBAGE.

All three were reprimanded according to the GSDF. The data in question is considered sensitive, but not touchy enough to pursue criminal penalties just for losing it. The device has still not been recovered.

In both cases GadgetTrak USB would have phoned home with information regarding where the device was, who had it and other information. This would have helped to recover the device in both instances and ensure that the device was “simply lost” and did not actually find its way into nefarious hands.

Click image for larger version

GadgetTrak was featured in a recent Reuter’s article. Alison DeLauzon had her camera stolen while on vacation and she had an Eye-Fi card installed on the device which transmits pictures via wi-fi networks. The camera’s card uploaded photos on an open wi-fi network and some of the photos were of the thief. This was a lucky break for the camera owner of the camera.

GadgetTrak was mentioned as a more aggressive measure to help owners protect their devices:

While passive systems have helped reunite missing gadgets with their owners, more aggressive measures can be employed to protect everything from laptops to iPods and BlackBerrys.

GadgetTrak, of Beaverton, Oregon, sells software that can be loaded onto any of those devices. If a BlackBerry, for example, falls into the wrong hands, the software grabs information from the new user’s SIM data card and e-mails it to the rightful owner.

With an Apple Mac computer, the software instructs the built-in camera to take video of the thief and sends to the owner, along information about nearby wireless networks.

…

Computerworld mentioned GadgetTrak today in an articled titled “8 Incredibly Useful Tools for Road Warriors”

If you don’t like the idea of a monitoring center tracking your computer’s movements, WestinTech Inc.’s GadgetTrak works similarly to LoJack for Laptops but sends the information it collects directly to you via e-mail. If your system is stolen, you can contact police with the location information gathered by the software.

GadgetTrak was featured in the Chicago Daily Herald, as a solution to GPS theft.

An Oregon-based company, however, is trying to solve the recovery problem. GadgetTrak sells software for a yearly subscription ($12.95) so owners can keep tabs on their computers, GPS devices, MP3 players and cell phones.

In the case of a GPS, the next time someone tries to download new information from a computer, GadgetTrak sends an e-mail to the owner. Tracking a computer IP address, the company can tell owners the exact location, said Ken Westin, company owner.

“I think a lot of our customers are people who have had stuff stolen before,” Westin said. “There’s a lot of anger. They feel helpless. Our software is a way to empower them so it’s something they can do.”

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”.

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.

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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

Consultancy firm Strategy Analytics says 282 million handsets were shipped worldwide in the first three months of 2008, up 14% from a year ago.

Handset market share

Nokia 40.9%

Samsung 16.4%

Motorola 9.7%

LG Electronics 8.6%

Sony Ericsson 7.9%

Others 16.4%

Source: Strategy Analytics

 Source: BBC

Some companies are now producing software for theft protection that can track the whereabouts of units, and some manufacturers are requiring that codes be entered before the system can be activated.

“If someone steals your GPS device, they’ve stolen more than just your device,” said Ken Westin, chief executive officer of GadgetTrak, in Portland, Ore. “It has your home address and where you’ve been for the past week.”

Philadelphia Inquirer

There was a recent post on Slashdot this past weekend which listed GadgetTrak along side a few other companies that develop theft recovery software. I am a huge Slashdot fan, mainly because the readers/commenters do not pull any punches, they are geeks geeks, meaning they know technology. One key difference between GadgetTrak and these other solutions became quite apparent in the comments, as many security and IT folks in the know understand the security ramifications of the “traditional approach” to theft recovery, whereby a back-door is essentially installed into the system. The comments regarding one solution backs up why we feel this approach should be avoided:

What I find is interesting: A program that installs without my permission or knowledge, takes orders from a 3rd party (up to and including “wipe the hard drive”), and actively resists removal. The sales rep at MPC/Gateway got the XXXXX rep on the phone and they both claim that it isn’t a virus. Okay, fine, it doesn’t self-replicate. Seems to fit darn near every other part of the definition! Their tech-support guy ordered the two computers to disable their BIOS component and uninstall [remotely], which THEY DID! The files in C:\Windows\System32 vanished before my eyes.

Gateway/MPC doesn’t seem to understand my frustration. We spend so much time and money securing our computers and making sure they run only the software we WANT them to run. Now you want me to feel safe with a BIOS-level program that copies itself to FAT32/NTFS partitions and tricks Windows OSes into executing it? This same program that calls a 3rd party and requests instructions? I know of only three instructions it can accept, but what if there are others? (”Stolen, check in every 15 minutes”, “Stolen, wipe hard drive”, “Disable and uninstall” we know of)

We are excited to announce that GadgetTrak is a proud sponsor of this years Oregon Trail Rally. Expected entrants include defending Rally America champion and extreme sport icon Travis Pastrana, DC shoes founder Ken Block, BMX legend Dave Mirra, Formula D champion Tanner Foust, and some of the fastest rally drivers and co-drivers in North America. GadgetTrak will have a booth at the fan event at Pioneer Square in Portland Oregon on the 16th as well as at Portland International Raceway for the first stage of the rally.

For more information on the race visit www.oregontrailrally.com
. See you at the races!

Here is some great footage from last year’s event: