Home | News Alerts | Using GPS to Counter Laptop Theft

Personal Security and Identity Theft Expert Touts GPS to Counter Laptop Theft

USPRwire (Press Release); MyLaptopGPS -

October 21, 2006

The past year has witnessed at least five major security breaches involving laptop computers, putting millions of consumers’ identities at risk of theft. Robert Siciliano, a personal security and identity theft expert, encouraged organizations to stave off further portable computer thefts and losses by considering GPS tracking technology for their fleets of laptops.

Full Story (USPRwire)

Our Analysis:

Installing a GPS tracking device on a computer is the same principle as installing a radar device on your car. Better that the car (or the laptop) not be stolen in the first place, but . . . Some may see the idea of rigging a laptop with a GPS tracking device as a case of closing the barn door after the horse is gone, but maybe not.

First, everyone needs to understand that storing essays and term papers on computers is quite different from personal identifying information—like name, date of birth and a Social Security number. Private data such as this should only be stored on a laptop if it has to be, and must always be encrypted first. And, even though today’s encryption techniques are quite advanced and difficult to break, the people whose private information may be on a hard drive deserve to know where it is. That said, laptops are sometimes lost or stolen; ergo said laptops should be retrievable.

The invention discussed in this release, called MyLaptopGPS, also installs software that encrypts and silently removes important files from lost laptops—returning these electronic documents to their rightful owners while placing the data out of criminals’ reach.

In the cat-and-mouse-game of technological crime/law enforcement, reversals and one-upmanship are the rules. A criminal innovation demands an innovation in turn from law enforcement or anyone else involved in prevention and data recovery. MyLaptopGPS is essentially a positive technology that’s intended to thwart criminal use of technology (which will surely lead the criminals to come up with a way to “jam” the GPS).

Few if any inventors or early adopters of technology initially thought identity thieves would use it for their malevolent ends, just as no one initially thought to use GPS technology to thwart identity theft. The game continues apace.