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Re: Jobs' theft and recovery

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:58:45 -0400, RichD wrote
(in article 
<01b433d4-0bc9-4720-85df-d2d1e114bbf2@f4g2000pbq.googlegroups.com>):

> On Aug 16, nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>>> Steve Jobs' house was burglarized, July 17.  The thief made off
>>> with a big haul, incuding Apple products.
>> 
>>> Apparently, he was caught after he activated his iTunes
>>> account, from his house, with his new iMac
>> 
>>> How did they trace it?  The report said it was through his IP
>>> address, but his assigned IP address - through Comcast
>>> or whatever - must be different than Jobs' home connection.
>>> Was it some hidden tracking software, or does each Mac
>>> contain a unique ID?
>> 
>> macs have a unique serial number and 1 or more unique
>> mac addresses.  actually, all computers do.
> 
> So, they recognized his computer's ID number when
> he logged into iTunes?  And then located hin through
> the IP address?
> 
> Would this happen with any iMac, any theft, or was it a
> special effort for this celebrity case?

If 'Find My Mac' is turned on _before_ the theft, it is trivial to locate the 
computer to an accuracy of approximately 10 meters. If 'Find My Mac' is not 
turned on, then when System Update makes a check with Apple's computers it 
will notify them that it's checking in, using the MAC address in the network 
card and the serial number of the Mac. Both the MAC address and the serial 
number are unique. If Apple has been notified that the device is stolen, the 
MAC address and serial number will be flagged, and the IP address from which 
the connection was made will be noted, and from that a physical location may 
be determined, depending on how smart the thief is. Other items which call 
home periodically include many Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe products, 
all of which report serial numbers, MAC addresses, and IP addresses. Again, a 
physical location can quickly be determined. In addition, if the device in 
question has something like Laptop Lojac installed then there will be an 
active search for it as soon as it is reported stolen. If the thief knows 
about 'Find My Mac' and turns it off in time, and if he turns off System 
Update or if he never connects to the Internet, then there might be a slight 
problem finding him.

No, it's not a special effort. A local man found his stolen iPad thanks to 
the use of some of the above items; he had less than stellar co-operation 
from the cops, though. 
<http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_c_palm_beach_county/lake_worth/lake-
worth-man-uses-cloud-to-find-stolen-ipad> I'm fairly sure that the cops moved 
a _lot_ faster in the case of the stuff stolen from Jobs.

-- 
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.

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Thread

Jobs' theft and recovery RichD <r_delaney2001@yahoo.com> - 2012-08-16 16:59 -0700
  Re: Jobs' theft and recovery nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-08-16 17:04 -0700
    Re: Jobs' theft and recovery RichD <r_delaney2001@yahoo.com> - 2012-08-16 18:58 -0700
      Re: Jobs' theft and recovery J.J. O'Shea <try.not.to@but.see.sig> - 2012-08-16 22:31 -0400
      Re: Jobs' theft and recovery nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-08-16 19:53 -0700
      Re: Jobs' theft and recovery Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> - 2012-08-16 20:07 -0700
        Re: Jobs' theft and recovery nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-08-16 21:39 -0700
          Re: Jobs' theft and recovery Justin <justin@nobecauseihatespam.edu> - 2012-08-17 01:25 -0400
            Re: Jobs' theft and recovery Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> - 2012-08-17 08:15 -0700
            Re: Jobs' theft and recovery nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-08-17 08:50 -0700

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