The Khaki Bandit Strikes At IT - 130 Stolen Laptops 249
destinyland writes "'The khaki bandit' posed as an office worker at several corporations and successfully stole over 130 laptops which he later sold on eBay. The ease of theft from the corporate offices (including FedEx and Burger King) shows just how bad corporate security can be. In some cases, the career thief just walked into the office behind an employee with a security badge. Two million laptops were stolen just in 2004, and of those 97 percent were never recovered. Ultimately it was the corporate headquarters of Outback Steakhouse who caught the thief with a bugged laptop that notified them when he re-connected it to the internet."
$150 a laptop? (Score:2, Interesting)
No wonder eBay shoppers were happy with the deals they got.
Thieves aren't that smart... (Score:4, Interesting)
Net bugs are a good thing to have, I think (got one on here), particularly given the plentiful supply of open wireless points in most large cities now. Turn on machine, bug sends data burst, thief is cornered. Hell, he doesn't even need to physically connect to a network these days.
Re:Thieves aren't that smart... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:if he was so smart (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe most tracking software creates a separate partition that would survive a standard reinstall, but not a complete reformatting of the disk.
What I think would be very effective would be a laptop, created explicitly for businesses, that would implement the tracking system in hardware. If you added it to the integrated wireless networking, you wouldn't be able to shut it off, and you could track it whenever you needed to. If you are concerned about battery life, you could allow someone to shut it off, but have it wake-up every few hours just to check in. When it checks in, if it's labeled as stolen, the networking stays on, allowing for constant tracking.
There are some privacy concerns with a tracking device that can't be turned off, but that's why I said it would be explicitly for businesses, (or people who want that feature explicitly). For many businesses, the loss of privacy is less important that the ability to track their assets.
ID cards... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:1, Interesting)
Ehm.... I have a work laptop. I would have preferred a desktop, but I got a laptop. Why exactly would I need to pack up my laptop every night, and take it with me or even lock it in a closet if it is in the office? I mean, if my coworkers are going to steal it, then the company has bigger problems than me leaving the laptop unattended overnight and during my holidays.
The office is only accessible with a keycard in the first place, so that leaves the cleaning ladies as possible thieves.
I don't know, but unlike so many of my coworkers, I feel no need at all to take a work laptop home. I've got plenty computers at home, the work one isn't going to make a difference to me.
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously though, companies will take you to court over stealing a few hundred bucks worth of equipment but if you rob the company blind with sleazy accounting, incompetence, and outright robbery as an executive you get let go with millions in severance.
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:2, Interesting)
Ahh... the power of money (Score:5, Interesting)
Which is funny as hell, because I've read several times on Slashdot (sorry, no time to search) about people who have their laptops set to do just that, but when they inform the police that their laptop is in use by a customer of this ISP with that IP address, they're told to go pound sand, that the police don't have time to go catch criminals that you can lead them to. It's trivial--especially with MacBooks--to have it send you not only the IP address but a picture of the theif if you want--but it seems to do no good.
Maybe the thing to do would be to get laptop insurance and then have the info emailed to the insurance company.
Two million in one year? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can tell you this works (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
Speaking of being "the IT guy", I am so very rarely stopped when wandering around strange floors in my company, or when leaving with equipment. I could see why someone with a criminal mind would find it trivially easy to steal equipment from a large corporation. Asking questions is the easiest, easiest way to discourage theft. Start with, "Can I help you?" and go from there.
Re:Not limited to technology (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:1, Interesting)
MAC address registration (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ahh... the power of money (Score:3, Interesting)
The tracking companies hire ex-police detectives to speak "cop" when asking for an investigation to be opened with a police force. They are experienced in providing testimony before a court, filing paperwork, and saying the right thing to the right person to start a case. You, and all of slashdot, really, REALLY, want to maintain the current situation where an ISP only turns over customer records in a validated and ongoing criminal investigation, and under no other conditions. If it weren't for the necessity of a properly framed investigation, the MAFIAA would run rampant over file sharer's rights.
One company I know of in the UK specialises in contacting police forces for high-tech crimes. That's all they do, get the police to open a case for something as obvious as a stolen router or to report an employee downloading p0rn onto his laptop. Police forces know about things like stolen cars, burglaries, or murders. Anything falling outside their extremely narrow scope of daily activities might as well not exist. Any crime involving the internet or computers tends to be ignored by police forces, because they know they have no officers capable of understanding what, if anything, might have happened to break the law. Being able to speak "cop" and "tech" is apparently much more lucrative than even the highest paying hi-tech jobs.
the AC
Re:Look at the way many people treat their laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
Now while I wouldn't every check mine, due to concerns over damage/rough handling, and the fact that I like to 'play' with my laptop while flying....I'd not automatically think it would be quickly stolen as checked luggage.
I'm hoping stolen luggage is a fairly rare thing? I've had luggage lost, but, never had anything permanently taken from me.
This is a pretty sad day in age when you can't trust anyone to transport your stuff when you travel if what you seem to assume is true. When exactly did thievery become accepted as the 'norm'?
Re:Thieves aren't that smart... (Score:3, Interesting)
It wasn't just smarts he had but a lack of shame and empathy for others.
There's a phrase that's rattled around in my (mostly empty) head. It was used in some piece of literature I read a mammal's age ago, describing the nature of such a person. In lieu of, or in addition to, what we've been calling "smarts".
That phrase seemed to perfectly capture the essence of such a person.
"Low animal cunning."
I like it.