Tool For Mac Theft Prevention

You hear the statistic all the time—so often, in fact, that it becomes noise: A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds. According to the FBI, 97 percent of them are never recovered. https://roeprobratri.tistory.com/1.

1. Home Theft Prevention
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3. Itool For Mac
4. Tool For Mac Theft Prevention

I was content to labor blissfully away in the belief that laptop thefts happen to other people—until, in January, I became one of those other people. The crime itself was brazen: I was in the middle of typing an email when a young man snatched my laptop from beneath my fingertips, ran out the door of the Starbucks where I was seated, and jumped into a waiting car.

Office Theft Prevention www.admiralsecurity.com Page| 1 The back door to a building was propped open so that the smokers could slip in.

Frankly, I had let my guard down. I was a regular patron of the place, it was three o’clock in the afternoon, and plenty of witnesses were around. But it was all over in about 30 seconds.

The phenomenon is called “Apple picking,” and it’s an epidemic in major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York—as well as in Southern California suburbs, as it turned out. I later learned that in the course of just three days, thieves had picked off unsuspecting Apple users in at least 24 Starbucks locations around the region known as the Inland Empire.

Apple: Helpful to a point

When a thief absconds with your phone, tablet, or computer, naturally you call the police. But what should you do while you wait for law enforcement?

Apple’s solution is the “Find My Mac” or “Find My iPhone” service. In both cases, the location tracking functions only if you've enabled the device’s location services. (Find My Mac works only with Macs running OS X Lion or later.) Even then, police say, simply turning off the device easily defeats the feature. The advantage, however, is that users may be able to lock or delete the contents of their device remotely, thereby securing their data and making it harder for thieves to resell the machine.

My MacBook Pro was less than a month old. It was untethered, uninsured, and—as I realized a few minutes after the theft occurred—unconnected. Within a few minutes after my laptop was stolen, I launched my iPhone’s Find My Phone app, which keeps track of all of my registered devices. For whatever reason, I had either forgotten to enable or absentmindedly disabled the location services on the MacBook. (The Find My Mac service does have its potential drawbacks, as Wired’s Mat Honan learned—someone who cracks your password could theoretically use it to erase your computer.)

The good news is that even without location services, you can still lock or erase the machine remotely, but only when the device connects to the Internet. Weeks after my incident, the remote-erase action for my laptop still shows up as “pending” in Find My iPhone.

Apple itself is of little help in such cases. AppleCare’s extended warranty doesn’t cover theft or damage from crime. Visiting Apple’s support page is a dead end. Clicking “product has been lost or stolen” gets you a curt reply: “If you have lost or found an Apple product, please contact your local law enforcement agency to report it. Choose another support topic to continue this online session.”

At the encouragement of the local police officers investigating my theft, I called Apple’s toll-free number and spoke with a customer service representative. After explaining my situation, and noting that the police had advised me to call, I spent a few minutes on hold as the representative conferred with a supervisor.

When the rep returned to the line, he said that he would make a note of the crime and my machine’s serial number. He also gave me a “case number,” before adding apologetically, “We don’t really have any way in the system to flag stolen items.”

Given the rise in Apple-related thefts—16,000 in New York last year alone—one would think the company would be keen on being more helpful to law enforcement, by, for example, creating and maintaining a database that could flag stolen goods that end up at an Apple Store Genius Bar.

Parties of the third part

Several third-party applications promise superior theft protection. All of them provide variations on the same service: When you report your equipment missing through a Web-based control panel, the software will attempt to locate your device using its geolocation features, if the device is connected to the Internet. All of these programs can also take surreptitious screenshots and photos using the device’s iSight camera, and all include features that allow remote monitoring, locking, and deletion.

Flipcode’s Hidden “boasts the most advanced theft tracking software for your Mac.” I tested Hidden on my desktop computer, an iMac. Using nearby Wi-Fi points, the app placed my computer about a block and a half south of where I actually live. Close enough for government work? I tried a second test, which successfully located the machine. You can also enable the computer to take photos of the illicit user. Hidden’s basic plan starts at $15 a year for one machine, with up to five licenses costing $45 annually.

Prey is a free, open-source alternative—and it was quite a bit more accurate than Hidden on my first go-round. Not only did Prey pinpoint my computer’s exact location, but it also took a screenshot and a clandestine photo of me using the machine, and wrapped up all that data in an online report I could access from the Web. The “pro” version starts at $5 a month for up to three devices, and provides up to 100 reports, “on demand” activation, and an “active mode” that lets you keep track of your devices at all times, not just when they’re missing.

Orbicule’s Undercover 5 costs $49 a year for a single license, and $59 to protect up to five Macs. Undercover allows you to set up a theft report, which can deliver periodic photos, keylogs, and locations directly to your local police department if you happen to have your investigating officer’s email address. But the app also offers a clever “Plan B” feature, which simulates a hardware failure on the device. Because most thieves aren’t exactly criminal masterminds, they might be inclined to take the computer in for repair. When that happens, Undercover allows you to display a message notifying the user—or the repair technician, in this case—that the machine is stolen and locked.

Absolute Software’s LoJack for Laptops uses a combination of software and human intelligence to locate your stolen device. If your Mac is stolen, the onus is on Absolute’s recovery team to work with police to track down the system. The service comes in standard and premium editions, with the latter including a $1000 guarantee for $50 a year.

There is one problem, however, and it's a doozy. If you use FileVault 2 (on OS X Lion or later) to encrypt your data, these third-party tracking programs won't work. So users face a choice: Either take advantage of encryption to ensure device thieves can't pilfer your data on top of plundering your hardware, or forego encryption for tools that might increase the odds of the authorities recovering your device and bringing the perps to justice.

Safeguard your data

With your laptop in the hands of thieves, your other immediate concern is recovering any lost data. The fact is, police say, most thieves aren’t interested in your data or personal information. They’re looking for a quick and easy score, with the going rate for a stolen MacBook about $100.

Because my laptop was new, I didn’t lose much data. Also, I use Dropbox’s cloud-storage service. With plans starting at $10 a month (or $99 a year up front) for 100GB of storage, Dropbox provides a convenient way to sync and share files among several devices. Google Drive supplies 100GB for $5 a month, but, unlike Dropbox, limits file sizes to 10GB. Apple’s own iCloud premium service offers quite a bit less for quite a lot more—20GB for $40 a year, or just 50GB for $100 a year. But iCloud, of course, includes other features, such as space to back up your iOS devices.

Lock it down

Within a week, I had my replacement MacBook Pro. The same day the new laptop arrived, a police detective notified me that he had several subjects in custody “on unrelated crimes.”

Even if the culprits are off the streets, however, there’s no point in taking chances. So I invested in a good laptop lock. Unfortunately, while the older MacBook Pro models still have a security slot, the marvelously slim and lightweight MacBook Airs and the new Retina-display MacBook Pros do not.

Kensington, which makes a variety of locks, appears to have a solution for almost everything. Its laptop locks range in price from $30 to $60, and come with keys or use combinations. Wrap the 6-foot steel cable around a secure table leg, and all but the most obtuse thieves should leave you alone. Most Apple Stores sell Kensington’s $30 combination-lock model, but it isn’t displayed on the floor; you have to ask for it.

Kensington also offers the SafeDock Air for 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models. Both retail for $90. As the name suggests, the SafeDock is a dock: Slide your in Air, flip up a security gate, and your machine is locked in. You still need a cable, though, to tie it down. The SafeDock is also ergonomic, providing a 4-inch lift for the laptop “for proper viewing.”

Whereas Kensington locks use a MacBook’s own security slot, Computer Security Products’ Stop-Lock system requires attaching a security plate to the laptop’s lid. At $44, Stop-Lock is competitive with Kensington’s locks. Aesthetically, the Stop-Lock system might make Steve Jobs turn over in his grave, but it provides a double deterrent: a tight, keyed lock, plus a means of tracking and identifying the stolen computer if a thief somehow makes off with it. The plate is bar-coded; users register the ID number at Computer Security’s website. Beneath the plate is a chemically bonded “tattoo” that says “stolen property” in bright, nonremovable red lettering.

Finally, for Apple’s new Retina MacBooks, which lack the old security slot, Maclocks sells the $70 Security Clear Case Bundle. This clear, rigid polymer shell fixes to the bottom of the computer and incorporates the security slot to which you attach the included cable lock. The Clear Case also comes with a top clear polymer skin to help guard against scratches and wear and tear.

An ounce of prevention..

Perhaps one of the most important things to remember when you’re securing your device is that thieves are less likely to steal what they cannot easily sell. Through a combination of software and hardware products, it’s not hard to protect your MacBook from the scourge of Apple picking.

Updated at 10:56 a.m. PT to detail third-party tracking apps’ incompatibility with FileVault.

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As a retailer, it's not always easy to just throw money at problems like shoplifting or loss prevention. With a finite budget, many smaller retailers can't take advantage of all the technology that big-box stores may have at their fingertips. Whether it's high-tech security camera systems, door scanners, or facial-recognition software, sometimes their big-ticket costs just don't fit with your small business security budget.

But shoplifting can have a crippling effect on retailers — after all, inventory shrinkage costs the U.S. retail industry over $45 billion each year. So, while you may have a limited budget, it's important to identify shoplifting as a problem and have a loss prevention plan in place.

So, what's a retailer to do? Here, we'll take a look at cost-effective and low-tech tactics that you can start implementing right away.

Home Theft Prevention

1. Keep Your Store Organized and Products Well-Placed

How easy should it be to identify whether something has gone 'missing' from your store? Empty space on your shelves should be enough of a visual cue to signal something has gone wrong.

However, if your store is messy, disorganized, or a maze to get through, it can be harder to notice that you've been 'gotten' until it's too late.

Security expert and founder of Crime Doctor Chris McGoey recommends the following: 'You want to keep all your merchandise 'faced,' which means pulling your products to the edge of the shelf to create a solid wall of product. If someone sweeps the shelf, then it is easy to tell.'

2. Identify Common Shoplifting Methods and Traits

While there isn't a specific profile for shoplifters (thieves come in all shapes, ages, and races), retailers can curb shoplifting by recognizing a few common behaviors.

Shoplifters often work in pairs or larger groups so that there can be at least one person distracting the sales staff while the other proceeds to steal. The most common shoplifting method is hiding merchandise from sight. And here are some of the most common places where items are often quickly concealed:

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• Clothing
• Handbags
• Strollers
• Umbrellas
• Purchased Merchandise

Occasionally, you might get a bold shoplifter who quickly grabs an item and runs out, but other things to keep an eye on are price label switching and false returns.

Switching prices is precisely what it sounds like — a shoplifter will exchange an item's price label with a less expensive item. While they may still be paying some portion of the item's cost, this is still a form of theft. False returns are another form of customer deception. Often a customer will purchase a product, use it, then return it under false pretenses. And while returns and exchanges don't have to equate with a loss, it's a common issue that retailers should watch out for.

You'll also want to look for and keep these common shoplifters traits in mind when determining whether you should exercise caution or suspicion. Some of these specific shoplifter traits include:

• Spending more time watching cashier or sales clerk than actually shopping
• Taking several items into the dressing room but only leaving with one
• Acts nervous and picks up random items with no interest

Depending on how long you've been in business, you'll start developing your own sixth sense for when to sound the alarm and when to keep your cool when it comes to loss prevention.

3. Leverage Coordinated Customer Service to Your Advantage

Great customer service isn't just a way to enhance the customer experience — it's also an effective tactic to curb shoplifting.

Excel like program for mac. It's important to take effective store and staff management tactics and use them as a loss prevention tool. Here are a few customer service techniques to minimize opportunities to steal:

• Greet each customer that walks through your door — this le's them know that you're aware of their presence
• Depending on the size of your store, you'll want to make sure you have an adequate number of floor staff at any given time
• Create and implement a policy around bags brought in by customers (i.e. leaving large bags, tote bags, and backpacks behind the counter)
• Train cashiers to watch price tags and have them be on the lookout for price switching
• Have a code which enables staff to alert each other of suspicious activities

Creating these kinds of policies and training staff on shoplifting scenarios ahead of time can save you a ton of headaches that would occur from a more reactionary or ad-hoc approach.

4. Optimize Your Store's Design and Layout for Theft Prevention

We've previously covered retail interior design and merchandising displays, but now we want to show you how your store design can minimize opportunities for shoplifters to steal. Here's what you need to keep in mind:

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• Place your checkout so that customers must pass it while exiting. Given that most consumers turn right upon entering, place your checkout prominent on the left-hand side. Also, make sure to never leave your register unlocked or unattended
• To eliminate blind spots in corners that shoplifters might use for hiding, make sure you install mirrors while making sure there's adequate lighting in all areas.
• Keep your fixtures and displays low for increased visibility
• Keep small or expensive items in locked cabinets
• Keep dressing rooms locked and limit the number of items taken in by each customer

You can also compare notes with neighboring retailers and ask for suggestions based on their experience.

5. Signage, Signage, Signage

Visual cues can be a high-impact and cost-effective means of warding off potential shoplifters. Not only do they stay put 24/7 while shoppers and staff move in and out of your sightline, but anti-theft signs can dissuade potential shoplifters much like a security system sign at home will dissuade a burglar.

SmartSign co-founder and CEO Blair Brewster offers this handy tip, 'The goal of retail theft-prevention signs is to scare the thieves, not to intimidate legitimate buyers. Your signs should be a reflection of who you are and what you’re selling.”

Here are a few tips to maximize the impact of loss prevention signage in your store:

• Place a sign at or near your front door as it's often the first place shoppers look
• Instead of wasting precious shelf or floor space with your signs, place them up high where shoplifters will most likely check for surveillance cameras
• The language on the signs should reflect your company's brand and consider your target clientele
• Consider signs featuring eyes, which research has proven to double the likelihood of compliance

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Moving Forward With a Low-Cost Loss Prevention Plan

Tool For Mac Theft Prevention

Curbing shoplifting may feel like an overwhelming prospect at first, but the aforementioned tips can help you make incremental changes. Even basic tactics like anti-theft signage, scheduling enough floor staff every shift, and tweaking your store layout can go a long way toward loss prevention.