iSight Theft Prevention, apple, back to my mac, burglary, computers, isight, laptops, leopard", macbook...

Stolen MacBook Victim Uses Screen Sharing and iSight to Bust Thieves

A White Plains, NY woman who was the victim of burglary, including her MacBook, used the Back To My Mac screen sharing feature to turn on her webcam and capture images of the unwitting culprits using the computer. As a result, police were able to arrest the thieves and recover most of the stolen goods, which included two laptops, two flat-screen televisions, two iPods, gaming consoles, DVDs and computer games.

This plan first launched into action when a co-worker of the nameless woman at the Apple Store noticed her computer online and notified the woman. She was then able to log into her computer and the rest is history. So the moral of the story is this: If you steal a MacBook, please be sure to cover the iSight with some tape. Otherwise, you could also be charged with a second degree felony. [Iohud via TUAW]

3:37 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Adrian Covert
138,701 views
48 comments

Comments

blindaxs at 03:49 PM on 05/09/08
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Too good! That's the best thing he'll have tasted for the next while!
Kaiser-Machead at 03:49 PM on 05/09/08
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This certainly makes the Back to my Mac feature compelling. If I was able to make the computer lethally detonate in the face of the culprit, I'd gladly sacrifice my laptop to snuff out a lowlife :P
booze at 03:50 PM on 05/09/08
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Good. Now where's my cleaver, someone's got an arm they don't want anymore.
booze at 03:52 PM on 05/09/08
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Good.
Now where's my cleaver, someone's got an arm they don't want anymore...
zero1 at 03:55 PM on 05/09/08
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So how do you disable this back to my mac feature?
Sixxtwo at 03:56 PM on 05/09/08
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Booze is good in doubleshots.....but now I am missing both arms.... hmmm
Coder4Life at 03:56 PM on 05/09/08
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how is backtomymac possible to login since your IP Address now would of changed since that person would be on a different IP service. Get it..

Story doesn't make alot of sense, unless this is some how connected to .MAC and uses some service...
killarclown at 03:57 PM on 05/09/08
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girl in the background looks hot.. better leave her punishment to me
oopsIsharted at 03:57 PM on 05/09/08
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where's that screen capture from that you guys used for the post? which chick is that?
bpatten at 03:59 PM on 05/09/08
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@Kaiser-Machead: If you manufacture that, I'll buy one.
shamoononon at 04:02 PM on 05/09/08
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What the hell does that picture have to do with it?
Adrian Covert at 04:02 PM on 05/09/08
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@Coder4Life: back to my mac is strictly a .mac feature.
bosskev at 04:05 PM on 05/09/08
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I went to the source story, which includes mug shots of the two arrested men. Why is it criminals always look like dipshits? Here's the URL for one of these charming gents' photo:
[cmsimg.thejournalnews.com]
What ever happened to those glamourous days when a thief could look like Cary Grant and not asswipe mutants?

In other news...
(-4)
booze at 04:05 PM on 05/09/08
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be happy you still have disheveled legs to stand on you despicable malefactor.
geowrian at 04:08 PM on 05/09/08
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@Coder4Life: It's a reverse connection, not just a service listening on a port like Remote Desktop.
SuperCollider at 04:25 PM on 05/09/08
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Woo hoo! White Plains, NY represent! XD
IphtashuFitz at 04:33 PM on 05/09/08
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I have a product called Undercover from Orbicule installed on my Macbook so I can trace it if it's stolen. The thing that sold me on their products was the success stories they have posted on their website. You can check them out here: [www.orbicule.com]
IphtashuFitz at 04:35 PM on 05/09/08
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@Kaiser-Machead: Just pack some plastic explosives in the case along with a USB device attached to a detonator. Of course you'd have to be VERY careful not to take it through the airport with you...
LindsayJoy at 04:35 PM on 05/09/08
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There are many perverted uses for Back to My Mac screen sharing...
smcallah at 04:49 PM on 05/09/08
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@booze: Is it you who doesn't want the arm anymore for posting twice?
justinpe at 05:06 PM on 05/09/08
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Another reason to love Macs. Let's see a Dell or HP do this out of the box.
sqeakytoy of the... at 05:09 PM on 05/09/08
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all I want is a thousand pound springs attached to either side of the laptop hinges that can be remotely triggered to snap that sucker shut on whoever is trying to handle it. That way you can give the fingers back to cops to process prints while the search the emergency wards.
N@tedog at 05:14 PM on 05/09/08
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Wow. That is a sweet feature. Does Vista have this?
jimmyJAKE! at 05:20 PM on 05/09/08
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my mac was the only thing those damn assholes didn't take when they robbed me :( too heavy i guess
Step666 at 05:30 PM on 05/09/08
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@jimmyJAKE!: perhaps they figured you'd already been robbed by Apple, so doing you over twice would just be cruel... :P
homerjay at 05:31 PM on 05/09/08
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@N@tedog: Sure but it has to be downloaded and enabled by the thief and it won't work unless he purchases a license and enables cookies using only IE.

Oh, and you need SP1.
LJKelley at 05:38 PM on 05/09/08
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Wouldn't a smart thief just reinstall the OS (be it Linux, Vista, or OS X) and get rid of any software that tracks you. If they don't have the discs they would STEAL them off Pirate Bay. The only thing then of course is the Serial Number and a smart theif would just not register the device.

Thats why I never bought into software that tracks your device (unless they have software in the Bios) but maybe I should since thiefs seem quite stupid.
Accelerata at 05:48 PM on 05/09/08
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@Coder4Life: well, a clever person might also get their IP address from the IM session. she's just lucky they weren't behind a firewall with that port blocked.
rainfever at 05:53 PM on 05/09/08
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jason chen?
stinkyboy at 06:15 PM on 05/09/08
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it's LOhud.com... not Iohud.

Lower Hudson Valley.
tamoko at 06:18 PM on 05/09/08
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Tasty girls in tube socks... This just made my shitty day!
draconis2941 at 06:22 PM on 05/09/08
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@homerjay: You forgot about the $100 annual web presence fee for serivces you could find for free elsewhere aka ".Mac"
Faslane66 at 06:30 PM on 05/09/08
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hahahaahha What a moron, let the little prick thief rot in jail for a few years to take him down a peg.

Faslane
OGHowie at 06:41 PM on 05/09/08
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@LJKelley:

Fortunately, most thieves aren't smart.
Mandatory_Field at 06:55 PM on 05/09/08
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@LindsayJoy: "There are many perverted uses for Back to My Mac screen sharing..."

Oh? Please do tell us some....
yougottabekidding at 06:56 PM on 05/09/08
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@IphtashuFitz: Or set it off in your own face, which would concern me more than getting caught at the airport with it. :)
AmbroseP at 07:01 PM on 05/09/08
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@OGHowie: Do we not include white-collar or corporate crime in the pool of thieves? Such criminals, quite often, are intelligent or the at the very least, educated, and cause more overall harm than those of the blue-collar persuasion.
AmbroseP at 07:07 PM on 05/09/08
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@AmbroseP: I wish there was an edit function. Fatigue FTW!
discounteggroll at 08:24 PM on 05/09/08
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@SuperCollider:

[poor] Rye Brook here XD

I knew there had to be at least one other Giz commenter in Westchester county
Tsumi91 at 08:58 PM on 05/09/08
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so she ended up getting the ipod(s!) back? what a shame, it's like that movie "the gods must be crazy"..the stuff just won't dissapear. and I live near westchester county...it's NOTHING like the city for those who are wondering.
MagnoliaBoy at 09:43 PM on 05/09/08
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The suspect turned into a Caucasian! Good job Giz, innocent till proven guilty, I like that.
Syrus28 at 09:47 PM on 05/09/08
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@justinpe:

Haha. Out of the box? You have to pay $100 a YEAR to have Back to My Mac along with the other .mac services... Sorry.
Unknown2U at 12:02 AM on 05/10/08
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@Kaiser-Machead:

You mean like this guy?
[www.engadget.com]
Makkuro at 02:16 AM on 05/10/08
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Wait a second, this intelligent WOMAN has 2 laptop, owns 2 flat-screen TV, loaded with other gadgets, AND play console / computer game?? Is she hot (and still single)???
xr900 at 12:30 PM on 05/10/08
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Real Thieves DISABLE uPnP on their routers BEFORE they steal LAPTOPS!! And a post it / piece of tape would have solved your info leak even if you're too stupid to disable uPnP...

Basically.... If you're dumb, DON'T STEAL ANYTHING!!!

... DON'T STEAL ANYTHING!!
linoth at 03:09 PM on 05/10/08
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@LJKelley: The ones that make good news stories are the stupid ones. The ideal solution is while the device is booting up, turn off the wireless (most have a button/switch for this) and make sure it's clean before allowing internet access. And dump your cookies while you're at it, before going to Flickr/facebook/MySpace/etc.

@Makkuro: "...when three roommates returned to their Ridgeview Avenue apartment..."
geowrian at 01:58 PM on 05/11/08
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@LJKelley: Yes, but...

1) Most thieves aren't computer-savy. They sell the stuff or use it themselves. They would probably just assume it's a normal computer without can way to identify it like 98% or so of the consumer PC market.

2) More & more business-class computers are having hardware-level tracking built-in. For instance, on newer Dell Precision desktops, you can permanently enable, via the BIOS, a tracking device that connects to the tracking device's systems. It can also permanently disable access to the machine and/or data until the company installs a new board (in case you get the computer back). The company charges an annual fee for the service. The device sends the signal directly through hardware, so reinstalling or using any OS or any software can't prevent it. Once enabled in the BIOS, it can't be disabled without changing the hardware. If this catches on, it won't matter how smart the criminal is unless they start physically killing the network ports on the desktops or sell it for parts (minus the mobo).
justinpe at 12:27 PM on 05/12/08
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@Syrus28:

What options do you have with Dell, HP, Gateway? $0 a YEAR for no such service?

And, by out-of-the-box, I meant that Leopard comes pre-installed and you get a free trial of .mac, so yes, this would work out of the box for a few months anyway. Then you can pay. Either way, it is nice to have such an option.