A video is going around that shows a UC Berkeley professor detailing the mess a student got into by stealing his laptop (
Boing Boing links to various copies of the video). The student thought he was just going to be stealing a copy of an exam. What he didn't know was that he was also stealing industrial trade secrets, which will send various federal agencies searching for him. It's a great speech by the professor. The question is, how much of it is real, and how much of it is bluff?
The professor in the video is
Jasper Rine. Google his name and you come up with all kinds of links between him and big biotechs. So when he says there are trade secrets on the laptop, I would believe him. I would also believe that the corporations won't be happy about having their info stolen.
But I'm not sure I'd agree with the professor's assertion that the thief WILL be found. When he mentions that the use of Windows triggered an alert in Redmond, that doesn't mean anything. I get that alert when I try to use Microsoft Word on my laptop and desktop at the same time. Microsoft isn't going to be tracking the thief down. He also mentions tracking a signal from a wireless receiver in the laptop. I suppose they could triangulate the data and come up with a location. Except that on a campus with tens of thousands of people living in close quarters, that might not be of much use if the laptop was used in a public space. He also mentions a partial image of the thief. But obviously the image isn't good enough to allow an easy identification, or they would have already got the guy.
If I were the thief, I wouldn't turn myself in (I wouldn't have stolen the laptop in the first place, but that's another matter entirely). Turning yourself in would mean certain punishment. I would just get rid of the laptop. The likelihood is that federal officers aren't going to spend that much time hunting it down, and if the laptop simply vanishes there's not much that can be done. It'll be interesting to see if there's ever any follow-up to this case.
And oops. I just noticed this was linked to in the forum also. I should have checked out what that
'World of Pain' link was about before I wrote this up. Oh well. I'm guilty of double posting, I guess.
Comments
I agree with Alex that the prof is probably bluffing, if they had all that info they would have already nabbed the culprit. Of course, if the laptop were backed up, it might be in Jasper Rine's interest that who ever stole the PC be frightened enough to destroy the evidence, rather than risk it falling into the hands of a competitor.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22762
No good. Wireless cards can be turned off and the signal only works to your wireless rounter in a very small range (like one house).
>> If i were the one who stole it i would disable the wireless internet, make an image of the hard drive then ditch the laptop somewhere, then sell the data to a competitior. This would be of course if i was a dishonest and imoral person.<<
Most companies would do the responsible thing and report you for attempting to offer the information. There have been cases like that.
Third, there is no way to track a wireless device to a specific point since the makeup of a wireless computer network is such that a wireles device can only connect to one access point at a time. You would therefor, only be able to track a connected device to within the communication radius of the afore mentioned wireless accesspoint.
Third, if anyone were serious about just getting the data off that laptop, they wouldn't bother keeping it. They would take the hard drive out, and copy the data off to another device.
Finaly, what was he doing with unsecured sensitive data on a laptop that he just leaves laying around?
This guy sounds like someone who is scared to death that he is gonna have to explain to his boss why he lost the company data. He also sounds like somone who doesn't know what the hell he is talking aobut either.
Hey professor......DOH!
most wireless access point do not keep records.
What the hell is he talking about "transponder"
No laptop I ever worked on has transponders. He admitted that he pirated windows. and unless the theif ran windows updates or reactivated windows xp, microsoft wouldnt know.
There is no way the professor could have known if a theif copied data to a USB key or something.
If he did have data on it that was so important why would he keep it on a laptop that was left laying around.
With the correct forensics tools, you could establish if the data had been comprimised through being viewed or copied.
Windows XP machines will continue broadcasting previous wireless access points they've connected to.
The professor looks very nervous and almost immediatly crosses his arms as he launches into all the "ways" they can find the thief which leads me to think he would "like" all those agencies to be right behind him but I doubt it.
Finally, the professor should have encrypted the data using a tool like TrueCrypt which allows you to encrypt partitions or portions of one. Very hand for flash drives!
With the correct forensics tools, you could establish if the data had been comprimised through being viewed or copied.
I get that alert when I try to use Microsoft Word on my laptop and desktop at the same time. Microsoft isn't going to be tracking the thief down. He also mentions tracking a signal from a wireless receiver in the laptop. I suppose they could triangulate the data and come up with a location.
I hope many would also stumble in this data..
Thanks for sharing...