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Undercover: Theft Recovery Software for Mac OS X
Review by Tracy Boyerwww.innovativeinteractivity.comUndercover is a thet recovery application made by Orbicule. The Belgium company was oundedin 2006 and currently provides security solutions or Apple computers, iPhones and iPods. For this sotwareevaluation, I will be solely ocusing on Undercover Mac, their computer recovery solution.
How Undercover Works:
Undercover Mac works behind-the-scenes only when a computer is reported as stolen. Otherwise,the application remains dormant on the computer. It requires only a very minimal amount o space (ap-proximately one hal o the memory required or a dashboard widget) and does not require any annual eesor subscription costs. The computer owner purchases a one-time $49 license to download and install Un-dercover on his computer. There are also reduced prices or students, households, and educational institu-tions. Undercover Mac works on Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) or Snow Leopard (Mac OS X10.6) or the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro and Mac Mini. The sotware was written inObjective-C using Apple’s Cocoa ramework (Orbicule - Undercover, “F.A.Q.”).Once the owner installs Undercover, he receives an email containing a unique Undercover ID, whichonly he technically should know. Undercover cannot start monitoring computer usage until the computeris reported as stolen on their Website by submitting this ID number. Once agged as stolen, Undercoveruses the built-in wireless technology to collect geographical inormation to accurately determine its loca-tion rom within 10-20 meters. Furthermore, the application will use the built-in camera to take pictures o the perpetrator every six minutes. In addition to taking pictures o the thie, Undercover will take periodicscreenshots o his computer activity. Screenshots o emails, social networking proles, and other browsinginormation will be bundled with the location inormation and pictures and sent to local police. Undercoverworks directly with the owner and police to ensure rapid recovery o the stolen computer. They even have amoney-back guarantee and will reund the cost o Undercover i they are not able to recover the computer(Orbicule | Undercover, “How it Works”).While Undercover can work behind rewalls and used in conjunction with other security solutionssuch as Little Snitch, it also has a “Plan B” in case something goes wrong. Undercover subsequently akes ahardware ailure and slowly ades to black within thirty seconds, rendering the computer useless to the thie. The likelihood is that the perpetrator will either quickly sell the computer, or attempt to get it xed at anApple Store. Regardless, Undercover continues to transmit location inormation and when it registers an o-cial store location, the sotware will display a ull-screen message alerting the reseller or potential buyer o the thet and provide inormation or its sae return.
Undercover Test Run:
I was granted a temporary license to download Undercover Mac and run a simulated thet trial on mylaptop or the purpose o this analysis. I downloaded the Undercover disk image rom their homepage. Orbi-cule provided step-by-step directions to install the sotware in an email with my license key. Similar to otherinstallations, I clicked on the .dmg le and ollowed the instructions on the screen (Image 1). Ater rebooting my computer, I was presented with a user-riendly window asking me or my licenseinormation (Image 2). It was interesting to see that a user can download the sotware beore buying alicense, but will be unable to complete the installation at this point without one. 
 
Once I inserted my license key, I immediately received an email rom Orbicule notiying me o thesuccessul installation, and providing me with a 17-character Undercover ID. Note that this ID is dierentthan the registration key. While both should be kept condential, it is the Undercover ID that is vital or initi-ating the thet-recovery process.To then report my laptop as stolen, I went to their thet page and provided my name, email address,and Undercover ID. I was immediately presented with a reassuring message letting me know that they arenow tracking my computer and will contact me within 24 hours (Image 3).  The next day I noticed a small green light appearing periodically next to my computer’s webcam. Irealized that this was the sotware using iSight to take pictures o me (Image 4). Moreover, it set o a silenttrigger to begin taking pictures again when I initialized activity on my computer ater periods o absence. Itis important to note that I only saw this light because I was conscious o the tracking process, whereas I don’tthink perpetrators would notice this “out-o-the-ordinary” activity.I used my computer throughout the weekend and never noticed anything else strange about my“stolen computer.” 48 hours ater reporting the thet, I received an email rom Orbicule with a variety o pictures o the computer user, computer usage, and location inormation. From their ofce in Belgium, theysuccessully tracked my location to not only the apartment complex, but down to the building unit where Iwas staying in Greenville, NC:Skyhook Wireless location latitude: 35.616438 / longitude: -77.404010GoogleMap: http://maps.google.com/?q=35.616438,-77.404010&spn=0.05,0.05&t=h&om=1&hl=enThey also detected my internal IP addresses and router IP address. In total, they provided a samplingo ten screenshots and user photos over two days. From the screenshots, they tracked my activity on iTunes(Image 5), email and Google Reader, among others. My name was included in several o their screenshots,which they said helps them accurately match a name (computer screenshot) with a ace (webcam picture). 
Overall Impressions:
I was thoroughly impressed with this sotware. Their monitoring capabilities are top-notch, and theircustomer service is excellent. They treated my case with care in a timely ashion, and it put me at ease toknow that they were hypothetically working hard around the clock to retrieve my computer. Undercoverdoes exactly what it says it promotes, and while I couldn’t test the “Plan B” hardware ailure, I was amazedwith the results o the tracking phase. From the evidence they provided me, it would be extremely easy totrack me down with my picture, ull name, and apartment location. Thereore, the sotware successully ac-complishes its claimed purpose. Moreover, it is evident that they have helped numerous customers retrievetheir stolen goods rom their page o recovery stories.This sotware has numerous strong points surrounding its ease-o-use and non-detectable trackingservices. Unless the perpetrator knew to look through my application older specically or Undercover, ordid a clean install o OS X, he would be oblivious to the tracking sotware. Upon download, Orbicule advisedme to create a dummy account with no password so that the thie would use this access, and thereore nothave access to personal les and administrative controls under my account. A thie has to be able to log inand on to the Internet or Undercover to retrieve location inormation, so this guest account provides a ool-proo entry point.Privacy issues are always o concern when using tracking sotware such as Undercover. Orbiculestates several times on their Website that they cannot monitor a computer until the user initializes action
 
by providing his unique ID number. However, they also mention that they do run periodic checks againstits thet database to ensure that the computer running Undercover is not reported as stolen. I everythinglooks normal, they state that no data is transerred to their servers. One hacking possibility is i someone elsewas able to get access to your email account and initialize a thet using the ID in a previous email. Orbiculewould then send tracking inormation to this email account, and the hacker could retrieve sensitive inorma-tion about you beore quickly deleting the message without your knowledge. While this may seem ar-etched, it is important to note that this scenario would not be a security shortcoming o Orbicule, but rathero your email client.Another weak point o this sotware is that the owner has to have orethought to install Undercoverbeore a thet occurs. Unortunately, many people do not assume the worst and ail to adequately protectthemselves. I a laptop is already stolen without Undercover installed, there is no way or Orbicule to moni-tor its usage and location. Thereore, Orbicule has to rely that people will be proactive about protecting theircomputers.
Final Thoughts:
I would highly recommend Undercover Mac as a thet recovery application. I currently have two Maccomputers in my house, and I look orward to installing Undercover on both o them to protect my assets. This sotware is revolutionary or inormation security because it works directly (and remotely) with boththe owner and authorities to retrieve stolen property. In the digital age where technology is easily snatched,tampered with, and destroyed, Orbicule works to combat this unsettling issue with their highly-proessionaland extremely accurate anti-thet application.Undercover can be downloaded here: http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/Read recovery stories here: http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/recovery.html
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