The owner of the stolen laptop returned it thanks to the tracking program installed on the device

Not so often reveal the theft of phones, laptops and other similar devices. The reason is simple - to find all this with conventional methods is very, very difficult. Software manufacturers, quickly realizing what they can earn, began to produce tracking programs for smartphones and laptops. Such programs allow, for example, to find out where the device is located (thanks to the GPS module or the location system using the WiFi access point). You can also delete your data by sending sms to the phone or sending a signal to the application installed on the laptop. But the recent incident is truly unique. The fact is that the American Joshua Kaufman was stolen by his MacBook (plus jewelry), and before that, a couple of months later, Kaufman installed the Hidden application, a tracking program using a laptop camera.

The thief did not delete or format anything (though he deleted the account of the current owner of the laptop), but began to use it “as is”. As a result, the application regularly photographed a thief, both asleep, and riding in a car, and working on a laptop. In addition, the same application showed where the thief was located.

The owner of the laptop turned to law enforcement, but they began to lower the whole thing on the brakes, so to speak. After that, disappointed Joshua decided to create a tumblr page dedicated to theft and thief. On the page and now flaunt photos of our unlucky attacker. In one of the photos he sleeps peacefully, not knowing yet that the Hidden program is vigilantly watching him.





This went on for several days until the owner of the laptop was called from the police and informed that the offender was arrested, the laptop was taken away, and now all his property can be obtained safely. The police also added that they had arrested the offender thanks to the photographs that Kaufman had provided them.



So such software sometimes really helps to catch a thief. True, there is a high probability that attackers who also read all kinds of stories on the Web will “grow wiser” with each similar case by formatting hard drives on devices and deleting everything that is possible.

Via Mashable