Undercover software tracks "stolen" Mac
The team at Mac 360 "stole" a Mac in order to test Orbicule's Undercover, new anti-theft software for a Mac. David Chartier described what Undercover does in an earlier post. The gist of it is that Undercover tries to locate a stolen Mac by taking and transmitting screenshots. If the Mac has an iSight, Undercover will even take photos of the user and send those back to Orbicule. What if the Mac isn't connected to the Internet? In that case, Undercover simulates a hardware meltdown, in the hope that the thief will take the computer to an authorized reseller for repair.
To test whether these novel tracking schemes are likely to get your Mac back to you, Mac 360 staged a test theft of a PowerBook. The result is a two-part keystone cops post. Their conclusion? I'll let you guess.