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How To Prepare For A Stolen Mac
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Recently, a good friend of mine had his home broken into by a thief. They came in thru a side window, stole both of his Macs (left both of the PC’s), stole his external hard drive and a couple camcorders. Luckily, none of his family was hurt or threatened as they weren’t home. He has taken all the necessary steps with the local police and they’re still hoping for some results.
I’m surprised at how much this has weighed on my mind.
The first thing I have felt is sorrow for him. The Macs stolen had a high money value, but a much higher sentimental value. He had plenty of scanned photos, digital photos, home videos, email archives, etc that are not replaceable. He had them all on the external drive, but that was stolen too.
Secondly, I’ve been wondering if I’d be ready for something like that. My friend lives in a safe neighborhood. He is smart, careful and organized. Having this happen to him has reminded me that, cliché or not, this really can happen to anyone.
I’ve started to compile a list of things to consider in preparing for a situation like this if it happened to me. I thought I’d list it here for others.
I won’t be focused so much on things like “be sure your doors and windows are locked” and “be sure your housing perimeter is well lit.” These things are specific to taking care of your Mac and it’s contents.
- Have A Hard Copy Of Your Serial Number – Your serial number will be on your receipt. Be sure that it is in a safe place. If you only have a digital copy (in an email), print off a copy and keep it somewhere safe. If your Mac is stolen, you’ll want to be sure to give this to the police. It will help them in identifying your stolen property. Also, pawn shops are required to report serial numbers to the local police so they can be cross checked with the reports of theft.
- Have A Good Backup Of Your Machine – Most people back up in case of data loss, but it’s important to back up in case of data theft as well. Be sure your external hard drive isn’t permanently sitting next to your machine. If you want it always connected, put it in a locked drawer and drill a hole for the power and transfer cable to be fished out.I back up my machines every Friday. As soon as I’m done, I return the external hard drive to the safe in my closet. That keeps it safe from theft and from fire.
At Macminicolo.net, we have some customers who use a colocated mini just to back up their machine each night. If every they have to replace their home Mac, they can download everything from the hosted mini.
- Look Into Tracking Software – The chances of you getting your machine back are small, but every little bit helps. Consider programs like iAlertU (free) which may scare off a thief. Or programs like Undercover that will track your machine as it connects to the internet. If you have a built in camera, it will take pictures of the person to be sent. If it never connects to the internet, the program “will simulate a hardware failure by gradually making the screen darker until it becomes unusable.”Sure, these programs can be erased with a new install of the OS, but every little bit helps. The chances are high that the thief won’t know how to do that. Also, they probably weren’t able to steal your restore disks.
- Use A Cable Lock – All Apple laptops come with a Kensington Security Slot. These slots make it easy to tether your machine to your desk. Applelocks.com offers inexpensive cable for all kinds of Macs. Both key locks and combination locks are available.
- Report The Stolen Mac To Apple – Call Apple and report that the Mac has been stolen by giving them the serial. They won’t actively track the Mac, but if anyone comes in to have the machine looked at for repair, the records will indicate that it has been stolen.
- Get Insurance On Your Machine – Be sure that your Renter’s or Homeowners’s insurance covers your computers. Since this has happened to my friend, my wife and I added computer insurance to our coverage. Our computers, cameras and TV’s are covered up to $30k and it only added $18/ month to our insurance. That is very, very reasonable.
- Encrypt The Sensitive Data That You Store – If you have banking records, birth certificates and other scanned documents that are sensitive, be sure you keep them in an encrypted disk image. Programs like FreeDMG (free) make this easy to do. Just make a folder of all the files, drop it on there and add an encryption. You can still open it whenever you need something, but a thief wouldn’t be able to do it easily. Send a copy of that image to a family member for safe keeping as well.
- Get Familiar With ebay and Craigslist – Craigslist and ebay have made it really easy to sell your old junk. It also makes it easy to sell stolen goods. Be sure you are familiar with using these sites. When your machine is stolen, be sure to monitor them for your stolen Mac. ebay will allow you to search the listings that are near your home.
- Add Your Contact Info To Your Login Window – When your machine starts up, be sure that your contact info is there on the login screen. This is easy and fast to do following the steps in this hint. If the thief never starts up the machine and just sells it off to someone, they’ll start it up and see your “This machine belongs to…” info.
- Turn Off Automatic Login – It is so convenient to have your machine automatically log into your account, but it’s not safe. Be sure it is set to require your password each time. That way, the thief may have your machine, but not your info. (Again, I’m aware that passwords can be changed with the restore disk, but hopefully they didn’t get that too.)
Conclusion
All of these steps are so easy to do, but they may prove to be really important. Please take the time to do them…or at least some of them.
Any other tips to offer?
(Please digg this article.)
September 28th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
You also might want to add placing a password on your Macs’ firmware. I’m not sure if they have this for the new Intel Macs, but for the PPC Macs that use OpenFirmware, Apple makes special software that allows an owner/administrator to place a password on the firmware. That way when they try to do a re-install the firmware stops them by asking for a password. If you can’t replace the OS, then the machine is effectively dead and useless……
Browse the Apple Support site for information….
September 28th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
viperteq, undoubtedly we’ll have someone comment about how easy it is to reset the firmware password with a little trickery, but I think your suggestion is good.
Every little bit helps.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Here’s another one: get your Mac engraved with your contact information. This may cost a lot, though.
September 28th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Query: You can engrave it yourself with one of those vibrating engravers. Many police departments have them available for a free loan, as part of their crime prevention programs. It would be a good idea to engrave indentification info (Name, Phone number, but not address or Social Security number) on all your electronics, etc..
September 29th, 2006 at 3:22 am
[...] VÃa FreeMacBlog he encontrado una lista de consejos a tener en cuenta por si por desgracia nos roban nuestro mac. En este enlace está la lista descrita en inglés. En cualquier caso os traduzco (i did it my way) los titulares: [...]
September 30th, 2006 at 3:37 am
[...] Latest on FreeMacBlog: How To Prepare For A Stolen Mac [...]
October 1st, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Thanks for that!
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:54 am
I could not get the No 9 “Add Your Contact Info To Your Login Window” as there was no tag in the com.apple.loginwindow.plist
October 29th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Make a shell script which starts on bootup, and which automatically hits a hidden page on your web site every five minutes. That way, if the stolen Mac gets connected to the internet, you’ll immediately have the IP in your webserver’s access log. You can provide this to the police. Not that the police will care or act on it in a timely manner or even know what to do with this information, but it’s certainly worth a shot.
October 29th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Here are my tips, although they are in need of an update: http://homepage.mac.com/chillywilly5280/macosxsecurity.html
October 29th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
[...] Just now I was catching up on some articles posted on Digg and stumbled across an interesting one: How to Prepare for a Stolen Mac. [...]
October 29th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
I’m not sure if this is possible, but it would be cool if desktops asked for a password at bot whenever it had been unplugged from the wall. (I notice that USB lights are lit even when the machine is off, so this reset method would kick in if that power was disconnected.) Typing a password after moving the computer or a power-outage is a small price to pay…
October 29th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Faisel #8: Onyx has an option to do that step; look for this freeware on your favorite Mac software website (MacUpdate, VersionTracker, etc.)
- Guillaume
October 29th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Turning off “automatic login” will defeat any tracking software, as you suggest in item 3, because it will force the thief to do fresh reinstall of your OS. Of corse, as viperteq suggests, this can be prevented with an OF password.
October 29th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Go to “Security” in “System Preferences” and activate FileVault. It encrypts your whole home directory so you can ensure thieves don’t end up with your e-mails and private details, photos, etc.
October 29th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Why bother with FreeDMG when FileVault is built-in?
October 29th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Trevor, I was thinking that you can put some important files in an encrypted disk image and send them to a family member for safe off site keeping.
October 30th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Hi there,
I agree that the auto login is actually a good thing. I created an dummy account “flatmates” suggesting that my flatmate use it for surfing the web etc. Have undercover tracking software installed which can only be effective if the thief will actually use the machine. I also marked my login window and will install VNC + no-ip.com dynamic domain. There is just this much u can do when it got stolen but a Reward notice with contact email (and not postal address!!!!) might be very helpful. While even students may have macbook pros, a really nasty person might suspect even bigger things at somebody’s house who has a $3000 laptop.
Just my 2 cent…
October 30th, 2006 at 6:58 am
Finally a case where the PC is more secure. They left the PC’s and took the macs.
October 30th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Hmm, perhaps you could connect a chock device to the keyboard that zaps the user if they don’t enter a password
October 30th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
[...] This describes how to prepare yourself in case your Mac gets stolen. Read the full article here. [...]
December 23rd, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Hint no. 6 regarding renter’s insurance is extremely helpful. I need to look into this.
January 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
This list is a collection of smart and aggressive recommendations.
The aggressive hints are counter-productive. For example hint 9 and
10. In the first place, hint 9 is only significant after hint 10. Secondly, the
robber forced to log in with a password he don’t know, will format the disc and install OSX again.
All smart recommendations are so no longer effective.
January 14th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
John,
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that suggested.
If some person breaks into your house, the chance of them being a Mac user is small. Even smaller than that is a Mac user who also grabs your restore disk. Even smaller chance than that is a Mac user who grabs your format disk and knows that you can re-install your system.
Believe me, if your computer ever gets stolen, you’ll wish you did all you could just in case.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
My wife and I both had our laptops stolen in a recent break in. We each recieved and email from mac tech services asking us if our ecent call to tech services was satisfactory. We hadn’t called. It was the thieves trying to get into our macs no doubt. We called apple and they refused to list our computers as stolen saying it was against their policy. We asked if they would continue to help the thieves and they told us as long as the caller had our names address and serial no. they were obliged to help them. After persisten complaining on my wifes part, they told us to have the officer handling the case call them before they could do anything. Now we have to wait for the officer to come back on shift. Meanwhile the thieves can continue to get support from apple and we can’t. I even have an apple care package and I’m still getting “####ed”. Is apple aiding and abbetting a crime by helping those theives get at our info?
February 28th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Keeping a copy of your data offsite is crucial. A burglar might take your backup disk if it’s in the same building as your Mac – a fire certainly will.
(Our company survived a fire without significant data loss because I kept regular backups offsite)
A small external hard disk can be synched to your Mac using software like “Synchronize! X Pro” then taken to work or somebody else’s home. (Make sure any sensitive data is encrypted in case the backup is stolen).
If you have more than on backup drive, you can rotate the backups without ever having all of your data in the same place at the same time.
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 am
Maybe apple should actively track serial numbers when software updates when using autoupdater.Being the serial number is embedded in the mac. its a bit like those other things oops sorry PCs with the microsoft genuine (dis)advantage where you must have a genuine version or you cannot update, maybe apple should use the embedded serial number to allow updates or track stolen serials
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:38 am
[...] This is especially nice in case your mail database ever decides to go corrupt. You may choose to back up to an external drive. It never hurts to have things backed up in case your lose your Mac. (Related:Â Ten Ways To Prepare For A Stolen Mac) [...]
February 1st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
[...] to hear about Alexis’ and Alex’s computer losses on the weekend. Big bummer. Just saw this post about preparing for your computer being stolen. Sorry that it’s too late once the deed is [...]
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Here is another anti-theft solution for Macs… just found it. Lost my Macbook recently – so I did my researh.