Undercover: Like LoJack For Your Mac
Undercover, by Orbicule, is an ‘app’ which would certainly help if the unthinkable happened: your beloved Mac gets stolen. Once installed, you will never hear from Undercover again. It does nothing, it doesn’t interrupt with anything and its processes don’t show. This isn’t what you may have expected, but it’s the way Orbicule plans to retrieve your Mac in a very ‘Think Different’ fashion.
Firstly, you do have to start the recovery process, either by calling them up, or mailing them, or by filling in a form on their website. They start out by attempting to log the current IP address, as well as other network information to precisely pin-point the location of your Mac; screenshots are also taken if you’ve got an integrated iSight. Here’s a real shot of a thief using it:
If the first step doesn’t locate your Mac, they don’t just give up and stop there. Nope, they take it to the next level by faking a hardware problem. The screen gradually dims over a 30 minute period, and will remain black after that. In most cases, this will then urge the thief to either sell the Mac or take it for repair, increasing the chances of its recovery.
All this while, screenshots are periodically being sent back to Orbicule for monitoring. But if you think someone can just wipe the disk and get rid of everything, think again. Orbicule recommends, and has a tutorial on their website on how to set the firmware password, which prevents unauthorized erasure of the disk. This is probably something everyone should do, not just those who have bought Undercover.
On the whole, the guys at Orbicule have done a great job at making this so easy to use, and discreet after installation. Undercover is actually a root process; it will phone home even if the thief cannot log in. According to the company, of the 2.2% of Orbicule Macs that were stolen in 2006, 72% of these connected to the Internet. And of that 72%, 96% were recovered.
This certainly makes you think how valuable a tool it is. 2.2% is quite a high figure, considering MOST people with Undercover installed are probably quite security-conscious anyway. Look forward to Leopard support, two major new features and a free upgrade that seems to be in the works.
If you think you cannot live without it, Undercover is available from Orbicule, and costs just $39, with NO subscription fee (another nice little feature).
Hmm, I didn’t know about the high success right. I may go buy it, once I have more cash. Also, thanks for the firmware password tip.
Im a pirate …alright but two softwares i am willing to buy is Leopard and Undercover i saw this before i bought my mac but ididnt buy it yet even though ive been buying Wii games more than $30 bucks soo really i should buy this before games for ma wii. Thx for reminding me about this program!! Good review and funni pic!
that is a little misleading, the actual success rate is 69%.
However, that is still very good for a $30 product.
Is that guy dropping a duce?
sorry, 40 dollars
Interesting product, but please correct that 96% recovery rate statement. As steve said, it’s.. misleading, to say the least
Yea, that is misleading. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the software to recover your mac if it isn’t connected to the internet. So the recovery rate advertised is that of their software. Understandable, but still sneaky.
I wasn’t too sure about the recovery rate either, it is a bit sneaky. However. It shows that Mac’s are quite desirable ‘2.2% WITH orbicule stolen’.
I still think the recovery rate (about 69%[96% of 72]) is ok, and I think it is definitely worth the $40.
It does an excellent job, and without signing up for a monthly pay kind of thing… this is probably your best bet.
After some more research, there are a two major problems with this program that leave much to be desired.
The method by which they detect when the computer has been sold is faulty and could result in the theif being alerted quite easily.
The company could go under any day, and without a subscription of some sort, you have a useless piece of software that you probably can’t get a refund on.
Also, I should point out to everyone that this will only protect you from the dumb criminals of our world. If they are smart enough to not go online until they can do a simple google search for how to reset a firmware password, you aren’t going to see that computer again. If they are smart enough to replace the harddrive immediately, you aren’t seeing the computer again. However, considering only 28% of the computers equipped with it never see the internet it’s safe to assume that alot of those are dumb criminals that don’t know how to set up a LAN connection. So, basically need to hope you get someone who is computer literate enough to hook it up to the internet, but not enough that they are paranoid of what could happen if they do. I’m considering buying it for university next year, but I will wait a while longer to see if I use my laptop lock habitually enough to warrant buying Undercover. Also, remember that if you have theft deterants, you are less likely to need software like this. Buying a laptop lock on sale (I got mine for $20 two weeks ago) and downloading something like iAlertU is going to decrease your chances of losing your laptop significantly.
Good points above but I think that LoJack might be a lot more effective than you infer. It’s certainly better than nothing and well worth the $30 imo. I just bought it
Also thanks to MacApper for constantly providing reviews for mac apps I never would have found otherwise!
@Tom
I Think the whole point and reason for the 69% success rate is that most criminals and most people for that matter are dumb.
I agree with Steve, this is a helluva cool concept and as we all know connecting a mac to a wireless network is trivial for even a novice, so I would suspect most criminals would get online at some point and get LoJack’ed.
But, at the same time (after thinking), not everyone can afford a wireless router or a router even. That’s all I’m saying. Not all criminals are well off, most of them steal and sell. They may not even live in an area where anyone can afford highspeed to put to their computer either. That’s the only significant issue I see, other than having a smart crook. I’m not crapping on the app. I am seriously considering buying it, it’s just pointing out to people that the people stealing may not be as well off with you being able to buy a mac and a wireless router and afford highspeed.
If it gets sold it can still be recovered from the person who it was sold too.
also..no one else thinks that guy is taking a poo?
If it’s sold and the theif doesn’t connect to the net then the person who gets it will be the one considered the theif. But they would take it in for repairs, so you COULD get the computer back, but the theif wouldn’t be caught. And yes, I think the guy is taking a dump. He’s got no shirt on. Must be the type that strips to crap.
There is a free service like that being developed. http://tracker.skpg.se
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Good site! I’ll stay reading! Keep improving!
Any security is better than nothing. In addition, I trust that every thief that steals a laptop is in fact sowing a seed that he or she will reap for his or her misery. Thanks for all of the informative comments.
This sort of recovery has been going on for about a decade on Macs, with no extra softaware, just using features built into the OS. But I am not sure exactly how it’s done, just that I have read about it many times before the ‘lojack’ software ever even came out.
if you clean the Mac and install a new software ??