Mac User Helps Police Recover Her Stolen Laptop!

[3113]

The idea here is that Macs allow a person to remote control one Mac from another if you have the right name and password. You can see what's on the other Mac's screen, move things around, etc.

A clever Mac user helped police recover a stolen laptop using Back to My Mac's screen-sharing feature.

After her apartment was burglarized, the victim received a call from a friend while she was at work (conveniently enough, at the Apple Store in Westchester, NY). The friend noticed her stolen computer was online. The victim then quickly used another Mac to connect to the stolen laptop.

The article doesn't mention the technical details, but I reckon she activated screen sharing, and started Photo Booth (or another app that activates the laptop's built-in iSight camera). After a while, the perps showed up, and the victim's roommate recognized one of them as an acquaintance who had attended a party at their apartment some weeks before.

Armed with names and photos of the alleged thieves, police quickly arrested two men, who were in possession of most of the property stolen in the burglary.

If that isn't worth her year's subscription to .Mac, I don't know what is.

 

[Guest]

The idea here is that Macs allow a person to remote control one Mac from another if you have the right name and password. You can see what's on the other Mac's screen, move things around, etc.

Way cool.

 

[jomar]

Macs are cool.

 

[where]

mmmm I'm always getting tempted by .mac subscriptions but I'm not very tech savvy so I'd never work out how to do that in a million years. Which of course is why I have a mac in the first place

 

[Liar]

Macs are cool.

Yes they are, but this is nothing uniquely Mac. It's an RDC. Been around for ages both on Win and Mac.

Steve is a marketing genius. He gives it a new name, ties the web connection between you and your home 'puter to the .mac subscription and sells it to the unsuspecting fans as a New Awesome Feature.

I do hope that that user had the host feature turned on deliberately when the computer was stolen. And that it isn't turned on by default. Bevause that would be the mother of all secutity flaws.