We’ve had a number of laptop thefts here.
I’d like to buy a product that would work in somewhat analgous fahsion to Lojack on cars – a stealth program we could put on our corporate laptops and would, every so often, invisibly connect to a web site. If it finds its own number listed as being stolen, it could update the site with the IP address it currently was using.
Is there such an animal?
I remember hearing about a program that was installed on a hidden partition (would still run even in the even of a reformat and OS reinstall) that would run in the background and would wait until an internet connection was established, then it would send information to the original owner, can’t remember the details though…
The Lojack transmitter is about the size of a chalkboard eraser, and I doubt any device capable of transmitting and receiving over a sufficient range would not be a lot smaller, although I suppose a cell-phone type chip could run off the laptop battery. No one has tried this, as far as I can tell.
Software programs like CyberAngel and Computrace cause the computer contact a monitoring server as soon as it’s connected to the Internet, if the appropriate password is not entered. The server contacts you by e-mail or fax to tell you someone tried to use the computer. You can also configure it to lock the mouse and keyboard.
Caveo Anti-Theft uses a PCMCIA card with a motion detector, and assumes theft if movement of an armed system persists after an audible alarm is sounded. Depending on the degree of cooperation from PC manufacturers, repsonses can range from blocking the OS to locking the hard drive and BIOS.
I was thinking of a purely software solution, so my analogy to Lojack was not functional, but more of… well… an analogy. 
Thanks for the CyberAngel and Computrace leads!