Accessories
GadgetTrak – an Anti-Theft "Trunk Monkey" for your USB devices?
Every time I pack my gadget bag for a trip I run a gammut of emotions. First of course is all the joy at having all these cool toys to play with. Second is the groan of dismay that I am toting all this stuff around the world again, then of course there is that small moment of fear when I think, “Boy, if anyone ever stole this bag and all my USB gadgets, that would really, really bite”. I mean, how would I ever get all this stuff back? I have a backup for my computer, but all these accessories are critical!
Here is a possible answer on how to get it all back! Ever seen the “Trunk Monkey” concept? Bacsically it is your very own monkey in the trunk of your car to handle road rage, auto theft, etc., and is a nice concept in my mind. Go check out the videos, you’ll love it. Well, what about protecting your gadgets? What precautions should you take (seriously)?
Well, I came across this intertesting tidbit from Chris Pirillo’s Daily Picks feed. GadgetTrak is a free agent piece of software and a service both, that you simply register and copy onto your USB devices, to help recover them in case of theft. Here is a blurb from their site:
“…..The patent-pending GadgetTrakâ„¢ system enables USB device owners to track missing or stolen devices. The agent files are installed in the root of a USB mass storage devices, such as a USB flash drives, digital cameras and iPods. When the device is plugged into a system running Windows XP a prompt may appear telling the user to “install a USB driver”. This is actually a social engineering trick, no USB drivers are really required. When this prompt appears you can simple click on “cancel” or “OK” nothing will happen until the device is reported stolen. When “OK” is clicked the GadgetTrakâ„¢ agent software communicates with the GadgetTrakâ„¢ server. If the server reports back that the device has been stolen then information is collected from the system. The data is sent to the server, is logged and an email is sent to you with the information that was able to be collected. This is not the only trigger for the agent to communicate with the server. When the device is accessed from “My Computer” and the drive is double clicked this will also trigger the agent to communicate with the server……”
The current level of software and agent is free and has some limitations, but captures things like computer name, IP address, ISP, etc., and could give you enough info to get back that precious Dale Earnhardt thumb drive …. :)
Go ahead, steal my Zune. I dare ya.
