{"id":313,"date":"2012-12-19T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T15:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=313"},"modified":"2012-12-19T10:53:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T15:53:32","slug":"can-i-recover-a-stolen-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2012\/12\/19\/can-i-recover-a-stolen-laptop\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I recover a stolen laptop?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2010825\/can-i-recover-a-stolen-laptop.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/nccomputertech.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/id-theft-protection-5194408.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes, in the sense that it&#8217;s possible to win the lottery.<br \/>\nActually, that&#8217;s only the case if you haven&#8217;t taken the proper precautions before it&#8217;s stolen. If you do take them, your chances of recovery may actually be pretty good.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m only talking about recovering the hardware. The chances of recovering the files stored on that laptop are just about nil. Thieves and fences generally wipe the hard drive very soon after acquiring a hot PC. Of course, if you&#8217;ve been diligently backing up your files as you should, that&#8217;s not a serious problem.<br \/>\nEven if you haven&#8217;t taken precautions, you should report your loss to the police. If you have the serial number, include that in the report. Without it, should the cops recover your laptop along with other stolen loot, they&#8217;d have no way of knowing that the laptop was yours. And you&#8217;d have no way of proving it, either.<br \/>\nYour likelihood of success goes up considerably if you prepare for the theft before it happens&#8211;and I don&#8217;t just mean writing down the serial number. Consider subscribing to a service that will help you track the laptop via the IP address should it be stolen.<br \/>\nIn fact, your laptop may already have the needed tracking software. Most major manufacturers include code for Absolute Software&#8217;s LoJack for Laptops in their laptop BIOSes. That way, your laptop can be tracked even after the thieves have wiped the hard drive. Check Absolute&#8217;s BIOS Compatibility page to see if yours qualifies.<br \/>\nIf yours lacks the BIOS support, you can still use LoJack&#8217;s software, but that doesn&#8217;t provide the same level of security.<br \/>\nEither way, you&#8217;re not going to get the laptop back unless you subscribe to their service before the theft. The subscription costs $40 a year. The company claims a 75-percent recovery rate, but I have no way of independently verifying that (and no, I&#8217;m not going to leave 100 laptops on park benches to find out).<br \/>\nOther companies, such as GadgetTrak, offer similar services at lower prices. Again, it&#8217;s impossible to reliably ascertain who does a better job.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2010825\/can-i-recover-a-stolen-laptop.html\" target=\"_blank\">Can I recover a stolen laptop? | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, in the sense that it&#8217;s possible to win the lottery. Actually, that&#8217;s only the case if you haven&#8217;t taken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7,10],"tags":[602,633,1040],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-security","category-technology","tag-laptop","tag-lojack","tag-stolen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-53","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/06\/04\/security-breaches-a-monthly-headache-for-firms-deliberate-targeting-on-the-rise-cost-of-cleaning-up-doubles\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":0},"title":"Security breaches a monthly headache for firms, deliberate targeting on the rise, cost of cleaning up doubles","author":"NCCT","date":"June 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Wessel du Plooy\/iStock A growing number of companies are being subjected to increasingly sophisticated attacks on their systems, as the cost of recovering from these assaults continues to rocket. According to the 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey report commissioned by the UK government, 90 percent of large organisations reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7608,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/02\/12\/virustotal-tackles-the-tricky-false-positives-problem-plaguing-antivirus-software\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":1},"title":"VirusTotal tackles the tricky false positives problem plaguing antivirus software","author":"NCCT","date":"February 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"VirusTotal, a Google-owned online malware scanning service, is creating a whitelist of products from large software vendors to reduce bad detections by antivirus programs. False positive detections are common in the antivirus industry. They occur when a benign program is wrongfully flagged as malicious due to an overly broad detection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8465,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/13\/hacking-teams-arsenal-included-at-least-three-unpatched-exploits-for-flash-player\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":2},"title":"Hacking Team&#8217;s arsenal included at least three unpatched exploits for Flash Player","author":"NCCT","date":"July 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently breached surveillance software maker, Hacking Team, had access to three different exploits for previously unknown vulnerabilities in Flash Player. All of them are now out in the open, putting Internet users at risk. Milan-based Hacking Team develops and sells surveillance software to government agencies from around the world. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6766,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/11\/04\/3-things-to-consider-before-ditching-your-laptop-for-a-tablet\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":3},"title":"3 things to consider before ditching your laptop for a tablet","author":"NCCT","date":"November 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For a few years now I\u2019ve been watching tablets develop into ever more potent machines, with an eye towards making the jump from a laptop to a slate for my mobile workstation. Sure, people have been working on iPads for years, but until recently it\u2019s always seemed like a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9025,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2016\/09\/15\/this-week-in-computer-hardware-381-gtx-1050-and-a-23-lb-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":4},"title":"This Week in Computer Hardware 381: GTX 1050 and a 23 Lb. Laptop","author":"NCCT","date":"September 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week in Computer Hardware 381: GTX 1050 and a 23 Lb. Laptop Hosts: Patrick Norton, Ryan Shrout NVIDIA's GTX 1050 is apparently scheduled for the end of the month, AMD celebrates their Radeon Technologies Group anniversary, Hardware Canucks reviews the Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD, the Actiontec MoCA WCB6200Q\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2930,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/17\/chromebooks-take-20-25-of-sub-300-laptop-market-in-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":313,"position":5},"title":"Chromebooks take 20-25% of sub-$300 laptop market in US","author":"NCCT","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The excitement surrounding netbooks is long gone, with every major manufacturer walking away from the market in favour of higher-margin products and people opting for tablets or more powerful ultra-slim laptops instead. But there\u2019s still room for laptops in the low budget marketplace, and one unlikely player is slowly but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}