Lose your laptop these days and you lose part of your life. But now, researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have found a way to give you a shot at getting your life back. On Monday, they plan to launch a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.
Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.
Adeona has three main properties:
- Private: Adeona uses state-of-the-art cryptographic mechanisms to ensure that the owner is the only party that can use the system to reveal the locations visited by a device.
- Reliable: Adeona uses a community-based remote storage facility, ensuring retrievability of recent location updates.
- Open source and free: Adeona's software is licensed under GPLv2. While your locations are secret, the tracking system's design is not.
The Mac OS X version also has an option to capture pictures of the laptop user or thief using the built-in iSight camera and the freeware tool isightcapture.
So go ahead and protect your laptop before its too late. And let us know your opinion on this service too.
Download Adeona for Windows and Mac
Technorati Tags: Laptop, locate stolen laptop
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