Protect your laptop against theft - College of Charleston Libraries

Student Computing Support has long recommended a product called Lojack for Laptops, which can help police recover your laptop in the event that it is stolen. While this is a fine product, many students don’t take advantage of it because of its cost, which is $99 for three years of coverage.

Thanks to an open source project called Prey, there is a free alternative that will let you track up to three of your devices for free. Prey supports Windows, Mac OS, the Ubuntu flavor of linux, and Android to protect your smartphone.  It is very similar to Lojack for laptops in that if your computer is stolen, it will give you the information you need for the police to recover it (and hopefully other stuff the person has stolen from you or others).  If your computer has a built in webcam, it can send you a picture of whoever is using the laptop as well as lock down the computer to help keep your personal data safe.  On your Android phone, it can use the GPS to give you the location where the phone is.