Protect your Mac from Thieves

In this Instructable, I'm going to show you how to protect your Macintosh computer from thieves. While these techniques aren't 100% effective, they'll improve your chances of getting your Mac back by an infinite factor... The reason I say this is that without any of these techniques, you have no chance of ever getting it back.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an episode of Dateline NBC that covered iPod thefts and how they caught the thieves. It got me to wonder how I could protect my own iPod and computers. A little previous knowledge and Internet research reveled some great techniques. Unfortunately, nothing for the iPod except a way to register the serial number.

I'm sure there are similar techniques that can be used on Windows and Linux machines, but I don't own them. I welcome someone else to publish a similar Instructable for those machines.

I have no affiliations with any of the software mentioned herein, except that I'm a happy and paying customer.

Step 1: Lock It Down...

This is probably one of the simplest and most ignored techniques! Every Mac ever built included a special hole in the case exclusively for cabling the computer to your desk. The cables are readily available from many sources and simple to install. On many desktop Macs, there is an additional lockable latch to keep the side panel from being opened.

Use this feature if you don't go everywhere with your Mac. An intruder will likely give up quickly and take your TV instead.

Comments

[Sassah122]

How do you unlock it or bypass it? Some one PLEASE tell me. No I'm not a theif. Just wan't to learn about macs.

[techboy411]

Tip: DISLABLE Autologin on your laptop

[007dna]

 Or, for easier and cheaper, just use iAlertU. For free. (Macbooks only...)

www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29578

007dna

[LasVegas]

 iAlertU is good. The $4.95 version is better and it's the only solution for iPods and iPhones, but UnderCover is better and more tightly hidden within the System of the computer. This makes it harder for a thief to detect its presence and remove it.

[007dna]

 Ah, but for those of us that do not spend money online, this is a good option.

I see your logic, though!   :)

007dna

[Ipodgeek2009]

I wish I knew about this BEFORE I got my MacBook stolen :(

[M4industries]

 Yeah, my mac pro is worth 3K. We got it for free though with PS CS3 and Final Cut Pro 6.

[elpec]

thanks for post, nonwise of this tool, ;) greetings

[ReCreate]

In the past,caveman arguded over who's pet dinosoar ran faster Now,people argue which computer is better faster adn everything. Boy do thingschange,no? (Stupid spell checker,it doesent even work!)

[fwjs28]

tehehe thats funny....

^{ps, if you use a decent browser (IE doesn't vut it) they usually have an option for spell check....)}

[ReCreate]

Oh no,i was using konqurer,google it,i had no option,firefox was unstable and would crash slax every 10 seconds,you gotta do,what you gotta do

[fwjs28]

try opera for slax...i prefer it over the others....are you using 6.0.0 or 6.0.1?

[ReCreate]

I was Using 6.09 Know Then i was using 6.10,Know i am using Ubuntu 8.10,the latest of its kind

[ReCreate]

And know i am back to slax 6.10,I ran DSL Linux On my laptop,I also tried Puppy Linux,but i got a kernel panic

[gyromild]

simulating a hardware error by gradually dimming the screen until it's unreadable

Thats an interesting approach, I'm quite impress that someone actually thought of things to that extend.

Have 4 G5 at the office, we simply chained them to the desk, the problem is with the fancy Studio Displays, haven't found a practical way to secure them properly.

[ReCreate]

or even better,turn off the backlight

[ReCreate]

And if you REALLY want to go paranoid,put a CMOS password on your PC and make it ask for it at startup

[PortalCake625]

Actually, on Macs, BIOS is almost obsolete, and on PCs(Windows and *nix), removing the battery from the BIOS removes the CMOS password. (Learned when I took too long to replace BIOS battery)

[ReCreate]

Really on macs its like that? Ouch Well anyways on PCs the Bios password is not stored on those chips that lose data when power is removed its i different type,In most cases its absolutely hopeless(even for the manufacturers) to remove the bios password unless if you replace the main board(or the chip responsible for that)

[fwjs28]

actually, there are different types...some are electrecity sensitive (loose data when battery dies) and permanent storage (typically laptops)

[ReCreate]

Err...wrong. I have a laptop,its battery died,everything in the cmos was gone,even the time. A desktop,no battery,keeps settings(not time of course )

[fwjs28]

and i quote (typically laptops)

[ReCreate]

And i have another one,time is reseted every time it is turned off with the batt removed,that 2,and that does not look typical

[fwjs28]

windows(mac/Linux) time or mobo time?and what does time have to do with this?

[ReCreate]

if the time is reset...the cmos settings where reseted too.

[fwjs28]

o...

[ReCreate]

ya...

[ewilhelm]

What do you use to back up your data? I have a cronjob running rsync to a remote server everyday, but can't say I'm really that happy with the setup.

[VIRON]

This might not be relevant but whenever I have new data I burn it immediately.

[ReCreate]

none of my data is worth wasting a cd for,hdds are good for data,solid state are not good because they will eventually go bad,in 5 years,according to some employee at frys But then again,if i get my hands on secret govermen...erm...recipes,i would burn it

[munchman]

I sadly never backup and I had to restore my PC from recovery discs. BE WARNED! lol :)

[lemonie]

Is that a UNIX variant Cron-job?

L

Man pages...

[LasVegas]

Yes it is, but Apple has taken the old Cron-job to another level to make it more practical on a computer that isn't necessarily running 24/7. The old Man pages won't be fully complaint with current OS X systems.

[LasVegas]

Ah! The missing step! Back it up! I'll add that.

[lonewolfszc]

I'm am sure that many people are thinking... who would want to steal a mac?

[LasVegas]

Since Macs, especially Mac notebooks tend to have a higher resale value than other brands of computers, they're a very popular target for thieves.

[ReCreate]

indeed,broken record! :P

[BOOM5601]

I LOVE macs,but I was forced into getting an inspiron 1521, and I was wandering if I can get the same software for it.

[ReCreate]

Yes you can get the same software,and even better software. Life is overall eisier with PCs because,they are compatible with everything,even non-plug and play.

[LasVegas]

I'm sure similar software exists for Windows, but I don't know what it would be. Searching sites like Download.com and Tucows may help.