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Re: [PLUG] Laptop recovery--useful data to collect?
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On 07/14/2010 03:47 AM, JP Vossen wrote:
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:01:52 -0400
From: Gordon Dexter<gordon@texasdex.com>
Subject: [PLUG] Laptop recovery--useful data to collect?
I'm setting up my Eee 901 netbook with a 'phone-home' type shell script
that will collect various data in the event that it is stolen.
[...]
You know, I gave this some more thought and I think we've all gotten
caught up in "cool problem solving" and have failed to ask a better
question, which is, why does this matter?
The laptop should have whole-disk encryption, thus the thief should
never be able to boot it up, thus none of these solutions should never
have a chance to work.
So... Why isn't the laptop's data protected?
This was really brought out when reading
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/07/12/2253218/Retrieving-a-Stolen-Laptop-By-IP-Address-Alone
because that OP was tracking his stolen laptop via Thunderbird logging
into GMail via IMAP. Wait, WHAT?!? So you turn on this laptop, and it
boots, auto-logs-in, and fires up TB all by itself?!? WTH!!!
My policy is that any laptop that could leave the house has whole-disk
encryption and even if on but suspended, it asks for a (user) password
on un-suspend. So how do these "phone home" tricks even matter since
the OS and data should never be accessible to the bad guy in the first
place?
(I get that in this particular case the laptop may have no data, and
it's certainly a cool thing to play with. My point is that people *in
general* need to start taking the default stance of whole-disk
encryption for "stored data in motion" and worry less about fancy tricks.)
Later,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| http://bashcookbook.com/
My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
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"Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
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implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
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