Data returned from stolen laptop, anonymously.

by **michlaxref** on Thu Mar 08, 2007 8:34 pm

How is this for weird. Two weeks ago my daughters laptop was stolen when the car that it was in was stolen in Detroit. Today a package came with 6 DVD's with all her data, pictures, music, etc.

Obviously got our address from applications, etc., on the computer. Grateful to get it back but wondering what the circumstances are. It was mailed from South Bend.

Has this happened to anyone else? DVD's appear clean. Thief with a conscience or buyer of hot laptop with a conscience...

**Sponsor**

by **Gregg Pathiakis** on Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:43 pm

That's amazing. I wish I had the same luck. I had my laptop stolen about 6 months ago.

by **Campbell** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:43 am

That reminded me of this:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

and also this (which sounds like a good software for tracking your stolen laptop):

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

by **LaxRef** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:40 am

Campbell wrote:That reminded me of this:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

and also this (which sounds like a good software for tracking your stolen laptop):

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

You posted the same link twice. Was there another one?

by **Campbell** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:42 am

LaxRef wrote:
Campbell wrote:That reminded me of this:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

and also this (which sounds like a good software for tracking your stolen laptop):

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2941

You posted the same link twice. Was there another one?

heh, good catch the first link should be:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=388189&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

by **ZagGrad** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:10 am

Definitely sounds like someone has a "conscience." Possibly a student looking to make money yet realizes how bad it sucks when all their own data is lost? Weird...

by **michlaxref** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:40 am

Campbell,
Thanks for the links. I may have to look into the Computrace. It would seem like someone good could wipe that off the drive, but perhaps not.

The most plausible story we can think of was that someone bought this on-line and then realized it was stolen and at least got the data back to us. We are thankful for that but it is a little spooky.

So the conundrum is that if the laptop had had the hard drive protected we would not have gottenthe data back. But we wouldn't feel threatened that someone has access to this info. I think a backup and encryption or protection is the best answer. Just make sure the backup isn't with the laptop.....

by **horn17** on Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:16 pm

Unfortunately, all of those utilities mentioned can be wiped off, or bypassed, even encryption - in the right hands. I make the recommendation that Windows passwords and encryptions are big improvement for Windows users for simple security, but they are rather elementary. A 3rd party vendor encryption software is the way to go. I would be careful about which ones though. Safeboot requires user id's and encrypted floppies and files that are needed to unencrypt, but unfortunately, those can be "bypassed" pretty easily. There are some softwares such as Safeguard Easy that can be a bit more tricky as well as PC Guardian. I would personally reocommend the PC Guardian.

by **forever lsu30** on Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:55 pm

i could only hope that if someone stole my laptop, they'd be nice enought to burn my some dvds of all the.......uh......er.......videos i have......

i don't know what i'd do w/o my midgets in compromising positions.