Tuesday, April 19, 2011

How To Trace/Search Stolen Laptop Part-3

Dear Friends,

In my earlier two parts (Part-1 and Part-2) I discussed about some important terms and logics behind my idea so that my friends can understand my point and they can enrich it with their valuable opinions. And in this third point I have started it as "How to find stolen laptop" as this will be helpful for law enforcing agencies and also other civilians.

So lets come to the original point.

I have already discussed in my earlier parts that laptop can't be traced like mobile phones by using its MAC number like IMEI in case of mobile but at the same time you have also learnt from there that MAC is an unique identifier and your duty is to note the MAC address in a separate place for your future need in case of laptop theft.

I think more or less 98% of laptop users go to internet and they use Antivirus for their Laptops and almost all the antivirus are updated through internet and not only that all the paid Antiviruses are either single user or a limited number of users, which means u can install that antivirus in either single machine or a limited number of machine and if the installation crosses the limit it stops to function in those systems/laptops. So I think now you have understood what I am going to say.
Yes my friend I am going to tell about the unique identifier of your laptop has already been registered in the server of your Antivirus during the time of activation and updatation in the net. There is another unique identifier in your laptop. That is hardware serial number and it can't be changed but you can't get it though any command except using tools/softwares like DEFT ,HELIX3 PRO and others and you can't get these easily. But your laptop manufacturer has this in their record. And I think this is also registered in the the server of your Antivirus.

So I want to say my Police friends that don't sent any request to the ISPs about searching of MAC of stolen Laptops in their network but you can send it to the Antivirus companies, who are running business in your country and in this case you must need support from your Government for passing legislation to compel Antivirus Companies to help police if they want to run their business in your Country and at the same time they must supply the hardware serial number of the laptop to their customers in the bill during selling the product.

And if this system is imposed in your state you need not to spend a single penny for using third party software like laptop tracker for tracking the stolen laptop as all the Govt. are liable to see the interest of their citizen and for this Govt. need not to pay a penny for you.

This was the technical part, which can help you but at the same time you can take help of this website. This is good effort of Quick Heal for the netizens.

Waiting for your comments and opinion on this.

Thanking you

Sujit

3 comments:

Somnath Guha Neogi said...

Really nice and helpful blog.
Keep up the good work.

indranil said...

durdorsha logic.

Sitanshu Ray said...

Dear Sujit,

Hats off for such an elegant software.

I would like to mention for your audience that the MAC address is stored in the ROM (Firmware) of the NIC (network Interface Card). During the Initialization of the OS, the MAC is copied from the ROM to the Address Buffer of the RAM. So during Run Time the OS has Access to the MAC all the time.

Anti Virus companies , when they are updating their Client's machine with the latest updates, fixes, patches and virus signatures, they match the MAC address in the RAM to the MAC address they have stored in their database. If the match happens, then they know that the user is Licensed, and may receive the latest updates.

Using the information that Anti Virus companies have, we could really retrieve Stolen Laptops.

You must insist that in the new IT Act, Government give unlimited Powers to Law enforcement agencies, such as the Police to extract such information from the Anti Virus companies.

You must also remind your audience, that they MUST NOTE DOWN THE MAC ADDRESS, the very first time the Machine is used.

Lastly, I think you have given a world class solution to a huge problem, that no one could think about so far.

Hats off to you Sir.

Regards,

Sitanshu Ray