[Techtalk] Sniffing for stolen MAC addresses

[Maria McKinley]

Daniel Pittman wrote:
> Kelly Jones <kelly.terry.jones at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> A friend of mine had a computer stolen recently.
>>
>> The computer had a wireless network card, and we believe the thief
>> might be stupid enough to use the machine as is.
>>
>> We know the card's MAC address. Is there any way to advise all local
>> wi-fi spots to alert authorities if they see this MAC address on their
>> network?
> 
> No, because there is no technical standard for implementing this sort of
> central monitoring.  (Plus, if there was, imagine the privacy outcry. :)
> 
>> This seems like a great way to recover stolen laptops + other wi-fi
>> devices. Has anyone implemented it?
> 
> No.  On the other hand, there is software available that will upload
> location information and so forth transparently.  At least one vendor[1]
> has embedded the software into the BIOS[2].
> 
> Unfortunately, most of it depends on Windows. :(
> 
> Regards,
>         Daniel
> 
> Footnotes: 
> [1]  Dell, IIRC, but I can't find a citation.
> 
> [2]  They said; I presume that it is something slightly different, and
>      their marketing fluff wouldn't really going to go into the
>      technical details — but they did specify Windows only.
> 
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There is a service called "Back to my Mac" that does something like this 
for Macs, but doesn't do much good after the fact. I bet it uses 
something else besides the mac address, but haven't looked into it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/nyregion/10laptop.html

cheers,
maria