[wordup] Of iMacs, phoning home, and death scripts

[Adam Shand]

Via: Simon Horsburgh <simon.horsburgh at stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
From: http://arstechnica.com/
More: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&frame=right&rnum=1&thl=0,1159473029,1159471815,1159237579,1159280999,1159235700,1159172541,1159097831,1158743385,1156526664,1159214970,1159100751&seekm=151020010937126493%25snipthisrdbridges%40swbell.net#link1

Of iMacs, phoning home, and death scripts
Posted 1/24/2002 - 11:14AM, by Yaz

Ethan sent a link listing the measures a person undertook to delete personal 
information from and later recover a stolen iMac. I was able to track down the 
original October 15, 2001 Usenet posting courtesy of Google, which contains 
a more detailed account of the event.

The protagonist of our story, one R. D. Bridges, had a sister whose iMac was 
stolen. Luckily, she had Timbuktu, a remote desktop application, installed. 
Originally Mr. Bridges was planning to insert a death script into the stolen 
computer's Startup Items folder to wipe out the computer's data. However, 
after he stealthily deleted the computer's important personal files when the 
stolen computer went online, Mr. Bridges focused on the grander task of 
recovering the stolen computer. Long story short, he made the computer 
phone home to his and his sister's house, and, using the caller's phone 
number, police were able to recover the stolen computer and printer. Don't 
you love a happy ending?