Thinkpads Forum

I'm interesting in buying one of these security tags (www.stoptheft.com) for my T43 as a deterrent from having my machine stolen. I do plan on having a physical lock whenever possible but there are places when it’s not possible or just inconvenient to do. I already have a boot-up BIOS password so that’ll put some kind of bump on the road for the thief, but they wouldn’t really know that after my machine has been stolen. This however makes a bold statement. And with its permanent ‘tattoo’ seems impossible for any thief to remove.

My concern is this. I’ve seem one of these in person and the size of it (I guess in the process of making the bold statement) makes any laptop look ugly. It’ll be fine on a corporate laptop, but on my personal laptop seems really unattractive. It’s been suggested to put it on the bottom of the machine, but that’ll defeat the point of having this deterrent. The other concern is, if it is stolen, can’t the thief/reseller keep it on as a feature for their own good? No one would know it’s stolen unless they call the company and cross check the barcode with the person’s name. What do you guys think??

Well, I think that's assuming the theif is going to stop and read the tag. It's more likely that they'll do a grab and run (or snip, grab, and run). The tag will help prevent the idiot theif from selling it on an online auction- or local pawn shop. A pawn shop owner would see the tag and being its such an expensive item, would most likely do a quick check to see if its reported stolen. An auction winner would probably report the incident with their credit card company, paypal, and the auction site. It doesn't mean the theif can't sell it to one of their buddies or even cover up the STOP tag with a sticker of their own. Heck they might not even bother selling it, they might just keep it for themselves. Its just a sticker. No matter how high-tech they make it sound or how expensive they make it cost; its still just a sticker.

Your idea about the BIOS password is definitly right on the money. You want to approch security from all angles. Enable BIOS, PowerON, Hard Drive, and Logon Passwords. If you have the built-in fingerprint reader use it's features. IBM's security is a lot better the most other computers. Enable screen saver passwords too. As well as put a reward sticker and basic contact info on the bottom of the laptop. Your not stoping theives, your discouraging honest people from being dishonest.

Your also counting on the fact that most people don't know how to bypass these passwords even though it's pretty easy (if you know about & have the right utilities). Your goal should be, if you happen to leave your laptop and someone finds it and they happen to test it out - they'll run into a password, get stuck or not even try, and then notice a reward and immediately go for that. It's a quick guilt-free reward they get just for doing the right thing. And it works more effectively then you'd think.

If you're found of having a professioal looking sticker, go with something like StuffBak.com, it's only $5 compared to $25 for the STOP sticker and looks a lot cooler.

You could always do LoJack for laptops, but it is fairly expensive. You will however get your notebook back as it can be tracked just like a stolen car.

redsb3 wrote:You could always do LoJack for laptops, but it is fairly expensive. You will however get your notebook back as it can be tracked just like a stolen car.

Only if the laptop can be booted!

Setting the Power On (POP) and Supervisor (SP) passwords means the thief has stolen a doorstop.

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

redsb3 wrote: Setting the Power On (POP) and Supervisor (SP) passwords means the thief has stolen a doorstop.

I'm curious about this -- do you really need both?

For a while, I had only a power-on password, but no additional password to get into the BIOS (supervisor). Is this weaker? It seems like without the poweron password, it's still a doorstop.

Ground Loop wrote:I'm curious about this -- do you really need both?

Yes. The POP is easily erased by simply removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes. This information is readily available on the internet, as well as directly from IBM/Lenovo, and is spelled out in the Hardware Maintenance Manuals for recent machines.

However, removing the CMOS battery erases all configuration information in the BIOS and therefore results in errors on the next BOOT which require resetting the Date, Time, configuration, etc.

Without the SP you can't get into the BIOS to reset this information and the result is the thief now possessing a doorstop.

The SP can be circumvented, but it requires large amounts of money and/or electronics skills far beyond those of the average thief.

Regards,

James