by NAOMI BLOCH

Reward 500$ for anyone who would get me back my laptop. My laptop was stolen from class, Wednesday 13th of september. Whoever took my laptop, you can keep it plus i will give you 300$ but pls i need my work back, pls do not sell it or format it…Make up a fake email address and email me my work plsssssssssssss

Desperate times lead to desperate measures, which is why Hany Ibrahim, a Concordia grad student, is willing to borrow against his credit card to buy off a thief. By posting his plea around campus and on Craig’s List, Ibrahim is hoping to retrieve an HP notebook that is priceless in one respect—it has two years’ worth of important work, plus official correspondence that the newly minted Canadian had accumulated regarding his immigration status.

A surge in laptop use in recent years has come with a corresponding rise in theft, and Montreal’s many campuses are turning out to be a crook’s best friend. Jacques Lachance, a security investigator at Concordia, estimates that one laptop a week is stolen at the university.

“After a few weeks, students start to feel at home and let their guards down,” Lachance says. “Most thefts occur in high-traffic zones. Students leave their computers unattended for 15–20 minutes for a cigarette break. Or at coffee shops, they’ll put their bag on the floor and go to the bathroom. They’ll ask another person, ‘Keep track of my bag,’ but they don’t even know who the person is.”

Thieves are also making a killing stealing laptops from cars. According to the Montreal Police Service, 3,928 portable computers were stolen from vehicles last year, up from 2,870 reported thefts the year before. “Sometimes students will lock their laptop in their car but it’s still visible,” Lachance says. “Or they’ll think it’s secure in the trunk, but people watch them go to their car, and later they’ll just break through the trunk.”

Trust no one

Ibrahim’s situation, however, doesn’t quite fit any of Lachance’s crime scenarios. “I was in class with 12 other students and the professor,” the 40-year-old mechanical engineering student claims. “After class, we gathered at the front with the professor. Two students saw the guy coming in, opening my bag and taking the laptop and they did not say a word. I find that a very disturbing reaction.”

Ibrahim’s not the only victim who can’t believe the reaction—or lack thereof—of witnesses. The day before Ibrahim’s loss, Laurèn Eslinger’s Dell notebook was stolen from McGill’s student union lounge, in plain sight of at least four other people and directly under a security camera. “That’s one of the things I was most upset about,” reveals Eslinger. “If somebody saw, why didn’t they say anything?”

In Eslinger’s case, excessive student ease was definitely a factor. “I had been sick for almost a week, so I went to nap on my break,” the 20-year-old explains. “There wasn’t enough room on the chair, so I kept my purse in my lap and put my backpack on the floor directly below my head.”

Three hours later, Eslinger woke up with no computer. “My backpack is not a computer case. It’s a lavender Barbie backpack. The thief must have been watching me [using the laptop] before I fell asleep.”

STOP thief

While it would be nice if we all lived in Xanadu, where spirits comfortably nap in public places and leave their baggage unattended, there are some ways the two victims could have protected their computers and their data.

At McGill, where an average of three laptops a week are reported stolen, Security Services manager Louise Savard says she’s hoping students will start to take advantage of the university’s new theft prevention program. The university has teamed up with a hardware protection company called Security Tracking of Office Property (STOP). Available to most anyone associated with McGill, the system involves fastening a permanent security plate to your computer. Each plate carries a barcode, registered with both McGill Security and STOP. Prying the plate loose takes some 800 pounds of force. Even if the label’s removed, the adhesive gel underneath leaves behind an indelible “Stolen Property” tattoo.

The university is offering the STOP plates free to the first 500 students, and so far only 100 students have taken advantage. Once that quota is met, the system will cost $20.

Savard says there are definite signs that the product works as a theft deterrent. “We had two Australian exchange students here; one had her laptop registered with STOP, but the other student had a white Mac notebook that she felt was too pretty to be violated with a label. That week, they had a break-in at their apartment. The Mac was stolen, but not the one with the STOP barcode.”

Lock ’n’ load

There are other theft deterrents available, some more affordable than others. One option is to have your equipment engraved with your driver’s licence or some other ID number. Beyond acting as a unique identifier, the etching makes it easier for Good Samaritans to return your property once found.

For those who spend a lot of time using portable computers in public, a cable lock ($40–$100) is a smart buy. Before you pass out in the student lounge, lock the machine to an immovable object in plain view, and hope that your classmates will show a bit more civic responsibility when they see some reprobate pulling out heavy-duty wire cutters. These locks often include some kind of anti-theft guarantee.

Keep an eye out too, for public service projects that may be running in your neighbourhood haunts. On the West Island, for example, laptop theft from vehicles is so pervasive that the police have now teamed up with the Insurance Bureau of Canada and two restaurants in Galerie des Sources to protect customers’ electronic assets. Patrons of Tutti Frutti and Jack Astor restos can stash their computers or other valuables in secure lockers, for free.

There may even be a way for you to track your laptop after it’s been stolen. Absolute Software has a fairly reasonably priced solution called Computrace LoJack for Laptops. Available for both Macs and PCs, it’s software that’s installed “silently” in your computer’s BIOS (or EFI). You pay a yearly subscription; if your computer disappears, you report it stolen and the tracking is activated. Every 15 minutes, your computer tries to contact Computrace via the Internet, thereby sending data on the location of the laptop. The company then works with law enforcement to try to recover your device. Currently, the product comes as a factory install option on a range of notebooks from Acer, HP, Gateway, Toshiba and Dell. You can also buy the software at Bureau en Gros for about $70, which includes a one-year subscription to the service.

For Mac users, Orbicule’s Undercover (U.S. $30) is an alternative that works pretty much like LoJack, but with additional, smack-me-with-a-two-by-four features. If your Mac has a built-in iSight video camera, the software is supposed to snap a photo of your thief and send the photos back to central command. If the notebook’s not recovered, the software will move on to trying to outwit the wily enemy, simulating a screen failure in the hopes that this will send the miscreant running to a reseller. The reseller then gets a full-screen visual cue and customized audio message, warning that this is a stolen machine.

Of course, none of these options should replace common sense. If you value your data, back it up; if you value your machine, insure it. Never leave your laptop unattended in public or unsecured in your vehicle. You simply can’t trust others to be vigilant on your behalf and, at the risk of sounding clinically paranoid, somebody’s always watching.