Chalk This One Up To The Good Guys

I’ve been banging on for the past couple of months about cybercrims, about how they will scoop to almost any level to get something for nothing, with the general law-abiding public being he sap who gets stung.

A story out of the US yesterday made me, not only laugh, but go “yessssss!!” as a thief didn’t realise that technology was about to catch up with him. While this tale might not strictly be about online cybercrims, it is about how technology is getting to the stage where thieves are seriously going to have to consider whether stealing tech gear is worth the effort.

In short, a bloke called Jim in the US got three PCs stolen including a n Apple Mac. Having backed up his previous Apple Mac on a hard drive he reinstalled everything on his new unit. Included in the back up was a handy programme called MobileMe, which told him one of his stolen computers was now synced to his new one. The ‘owner’, or thief’, of the new computer had no idea that he or she was being watched remotely.

What the person also didn’t know was that if he wanted to, Jim could have ‘hijacked’ the stolen computer, but instead he bided his time to see what was happen and the next day he struck gold. The person applied for a job, and suddenly Jim knew the person’s social security number, name and address. I’m unsure as to what the end result was, as it is alleged that the incident is now before the courts.

But what I love about this, is that when technology is stolen, the thieves either don’t know the pitfalls, or if they start wising up, then they might think twice about stealing equipment. I prefer the former method, because it could end up with the culprits being caught.