Get It Back: Top Tools to Track Your Stolen Laptop

Your laptop just got stolen. Bad enough you feel like an idiot for leaving it in a vulnerable place, but now you’re out both data and hardware. What to do? eSecurityPlanet.com has tools and tips to help you get your laptop back — and maybe even your pride along with it.

I had my laptop stolen once, about five years ago, from the trunk of a locked car parked at a shopping mall. You never forget that experience of being violated, of being stupid. (And it seems to be getting more common, according to this story in the LA Times where thieves follow customers buying new PCs home from Apple Stores.)

So what can you do to be more proactive, given the number of laptops that go missing every month? One way is to use one of a growing number of recovery software tools that automatically "phone home" (in the Internet sense of the word) and help you and the authorities, should they be interested, in trying to track it down. Think of what LoJack does for locating cars, with the added information that having an Internet connection can bring (indeed, the company is one that offers a laptop tool).

While it sounds like a great idea, there are several issues with using these tools.

Read the complete notebook security story