iJacking
-
This just sucks: iJacking.
Imagine you're doing a little consulting, sitting at Starbucks working on your laptop. You're latte is still steaming and you are really in a groove, typing away and being productive, enjoying the atmosphere at Starbucks instead of stuck in an office.
And your laptop is yanked up and away by some thug. You stand up, but hit the table, chairs, and other patrons as you stumble out the door. If you're lucky, the thief is running away, jumped in a car and you get a description.
If you're not, his buddy cold cocks you as you come out the door, adding injury to theft.
It's a trend in San Francisco, and I'm sure other places. I know that I love working at Starbucks and never thought about this, although I don't let my laptop get out of sight. However lately I've been more cautious about who's in the store, trying to see if anyone looks like they're preparing for a grab. After all, the $1200 laptop is the least valuable part. The actual bits of my writing are worth more. Or at least they are to me.
I guess it's just a fact of life just like an earlier generation had to deal with purse snatchings, but one that you should be conscious of and more careful as you work with your laptop. Even though you can now get laptops for $2-300, that's a lot of money to many people. If you needed food, drugs, or just spending money, how hard could it be to sell a used laptop for $100?
I haven't seen any reports in my area, or even anywhere outside San Francisco, but you can bet that this will happen more often as people use laptops in a wider variety of places and thieves see an opportunity for a quick score.
Steve Jones
-
Yes this sucks, but why should IT people think they would be immune from theft. Bags have been stolen from tables in drinking establishments from the time that bags, tables and drinking establishments first appeared.
One way that may foil a thief is to carry a locking cable in your laptop bag, loop it round a table leg and lock on your laptop. It's not perfect, but if the thief has to drag the table out of Starbucks into their car it could slow things down enough for you to grab your laptop back.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
-
And why not to use some Kensington lock while working ina café?
I mean even in our own company by policy we have to lock our laptops where normally we should not have any thief! So it's even worse outside of the company.
I know theft is forbidden. But until all the bad guys will belive that you have to protect yourself. It is just like buying ind installing an antivirus SW or personal firewall.
Honestly what is a real difference between a Kensington lock and a personal firewall? Both devices are there for protect your goods should they be virtual or physical.
This is just my 2 cents
Bye
Gabor -
I'm an assistant instructor on self-defense and one of the principal things taught to avoid crime is situation awareness. The main problem with having your nose stuck in a computer screen, especially if you're concentrating, is the loss of awareness of your surroundings. I know I get that way.
My advice, if you are going to sit at Starbucks or some place, is to position yourself so that there is no quick line from your laptop to the door. Second, never, ever, leave the thing unattended. I can't count the number of times I've watched women leave their bags on a table on the far side of the room so they can walk up to the cashier. I'm sure when they get stolen the women are shocked. Same thing with laptops.
Thanks for posting this. I'm going to spread it through the company.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
I personally think being away from work is a means to leave work off.... I know, I know, sometimes that is not possible.... However, this situation brings to light of being vulnerable to theft. To me, yea, the laptop being stolen is bad, but worse yet, is the fact that ALL of the DATA on that PC is now in someone elses hands... Not to mention the fact that you will never see that laptop ever again. The time and effort you now have to spend after you get another one is reinstalling everything and recovering all the data that was on the one that was stolen.
-
It's sort of like anything else, stuff happens. While it's useful to try to prevent theft (including insurance), it's much more important to reduce the potential damage.
Use encryped drives for all critical data, frequently back up critical files to USB chips (encrypted, of course) and carry them separate from the computer. Then if something ugly happens you can worry about protecting yourself, not the computer.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
-
If you are going to take your laptop outside of a secure environment, you should consider encrypting the hard disk so that any confidential data cannot be freely read.
Ther are a number of suitable products available, some free/share ware. The organisation I work for uses Pointsec (http://www.pointsec.com) which is more suited for businesses than individuals.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
-
This is most concerning as i often take my laptop out of work. I think star bucks should employ guards, armed if necessary, as they have a duty to protect their coffee drinking public from these thugs. However as with all these things i think the only thing that will really make a difference is if everyone is extra vigilant and aware of the ever-present danger. Thanks for the heads up. Jules
-
A great 'constant' in the universe is 'change'. What makes criminals and the crimes they commit exempt from this immutable concept ? What makes IT professionals and IT users exempt from this same concept ? Internet cafes, StarBucks and other likely sites for iJacking ... it is merely change, a change that you yourself opted for. You could have stayed home, in the office or whereever to perform your computer related tasks - think of life before wireless, before client server. Most of the time 'change' is a good thing. But quite possibly in this type of scenarion mabe it's not the optimal result !
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
-
I'm sitting at Starbucks this morning, writing a little on my book. Since I work at home, sometimes I get out and this is a great place to work.
However, since I read the article, I've following some of Grant's advice, picking a seat in the middle, looking up to see who's in the store, not leaving my laptop alone, etc.
Like all other security, this works best in layers. Pay attention, put yourself in a good spot, get a lock, etc. I'm thinking a lock is a good idea for me in the future and maybe for the guy who was sitting next to me.
He must not have read the article. He's a mortgage guy, working with a client on a house sale. He's sitting next to the door, his laptop on the table, but he's turned sideways, his laptop could be grabbed by someone walking out the door. And as busy as he's been talking to clients, he might not even notice.
I'd hope that they'd let him know.
-
I have a friend who was slightly worried about where we left our cars when we went to a rock concert.
You don't have your works lap top in the boot do you I asked?
Yep.
-
Call me old fashioned but laptops are horrible little things and it's really sad that our employees have bamboozled us into taking them wherever we go. Ironically my employeer says it's because of crime that we have to take our laptops home.
With all due respect to the author, it's a bit pretentious to be sitting at a starbucks "getting into the groove" on your laptop thinking how great life is. Secondly it's really pretentious to be sitting at a starbucks "getting into the groove" on your laptop thinking that the laptop is the least valuable part.
Steve makes a reference to the old days that purse snatching was the trend. Tell me honestly though, if you saw someone standing on the side of the street, purse open, counting the bills and some chap ran past and snatched it, would you have much sympathy for the dope? And yes, that is an apt comparison, starbucks is not your lounge or office from office, it's a business (open to the public) whose first responsibility is to themselves and their shareholders and not the safety of it's rather detached from reality customers.
Max
-
Yes Jules, armed guards at the starbucks, that ought to solve the problem (r you American by any chance?). I'd wouldn't like to be there when one of them mistakes you running out of the starbucks, trying to catch the bus, laptop under arm...
Max
-
After I chased the guy down and hopefully retreived the pocket book, I'd try to educate the dope.
One thought that hadn't occurred to me previously, what happens when some other dope, after getting a laptop stolen from the security-guard-free Starbucks, decides to slap a lawsuit upside their heads?
And another thing, it's not a surprise this is happening in San Francisco. If the same thing were to happen in Tulsa, for example, it'd be a short article about whether or not the lap top theif is expected to pull through after being shot four times by Grandma Brown.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply