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New Service Tracks Missing Laptops for Free

Researchers have developed a free open-source laptop tracking system for laptops called Adeona

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)

The researchers believe that commercial tracking services are unappealing because the services could theoretically be used to keep tabs on legitimate users. "It's not exactly clear what they're doing since their systems are closed source," said Thomas Ristenpart, a graduate student with the University of California's Department of Computer Science, who worked on the project.

On the other hand commercial products such as Absolute Software's Lojack for Laptops have many features that Adeona lacks. For example their software is much harder to remove from the laptop, and these companies are already in the business of working with police to recover stolen laptops. Lojack costs about $40 per year. Another service, Brigadoon's PC PhoneHome goes for a one-time $30 fee.

Because Adeona ships with an open-source license, anyone can take the code and improve it or even sell it. The researchers say they're hoping that software developers will build all kinds of new features such as GPS- (Global Positioning System) aware tracking systems for new platforms such as the iPhone.

Later this month, the Adeona team will give a technical presentation at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Jose, California.

The University of Washington's Kohno said he'd be happy if some of the existing vendors started using the code. "I believe that privacy for laptop tracking systems is important," he said. "I would really like to see existing commercial services provide high levels of privacy."

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