The following article is adapted from Jim's
posting to the PowerBooks
email list in response to Rick's reporting his PowerBook 520 and 165cstolen. Dan Knight, publisher
Dear Rick and other listreaders,
It is truly saddening to hear of your loss, and I hope your unit
is recovered. This seems a good time to relate to other PowerBook
users the story of my PB theft and recovery, as it might give you
hope, and might give others some good ideas.
I had bought a PB 1400 and been working on my Ph.D.
dissertation, using the unit to analyze data as well as compose
scientific papers. The very morning that I priced out Zip drives
(with an eye to backing up my work), my PB was stolen from my front
porch (in its carrying case, along with my checkbook and my entire
months bills, unmailed).
I immediately stopped the stolen checks and froze the credit
card accounts (whose numbers had been stolen along with the PB),
then went about reporting the theft to the police. A problem
presented itself, in that I had no record of my serial number. Yes,
the purchase invoice and shipping box had the serial numbers on
them, but I had mailed them back to Apple Computer with a rebate
coupon several months earlier. Of course, I had also registered my
PB for warranty purposes, so even the registration card was
gone.
I was in a panic, of course, not only because of the lost $2,000
PowerBook, but because of the lost data (and thesis chapters,
representing several years of effort and $20,000+ in university
tuition) - not to mention the loss of many highly personal
documents that I was not too eager to have strangers viewing.
I telephoned Apple Computer. After working my way through the
corporate phone system, I managed to get in touch with the head of
security there. I am very grateful to Apple Computer Security for
cooperating with the local police department in looking up my
serial number (from my registration card) so that my unit could be
identified and properly advertised as stolen. I was also reassured
by Apple Computer Security that because my hard drive was
password protected, that even if the unit was booted up off
of a CD or other System Folder, the internal hard drive would
not be accessible and my private data would be secure from
prying eyes. I was impressed that several weeks later, Apple
Computer called me at home to inquire on progress. Thank
you!!
More importantly, I think, it is because my PB was password
protected that the thief, upon turning it on, would be faced with
an inoperable machine. Yes, a sophisticated user could start up
from a CD, and reformat the internal drive, but not too many casual
thieves are geek enough to do that. The password protection would
significantly reduce the fence-value of my hot PowerBook. I
notified local computer service shops of the theft, should someone
bring it in for "repair of a forgotten password," and proceeded to
broadly advertise a modest reward for its return. I figured that a
couple hundred dollars was a reasonable ransom for my PB - and
probably rivaled the fence-value of the hot machine. It certainly
was small compared to the cost of the lost data.
Ten days later, I received a phone call from a stranger who had
"found my computer laying along the road." Since there was no way I
could prove that this person was the thief, I met him (with
a police escort) paid the ransom, and got my PowerBook back. Data
intact.
I have since acquired several lockdown cables, which are easy to
use, convenient, and have a combination lock. Resembling bicycle
locks, I keep one affixed to my desk at school, another affixed to
my automobile trunk, and have one for travel purposes. (My model is
the "Byte Brothers Security Cable" from Mac Warehouse.) The
lockdown cables give me peace of mind while the notebook is in my
trunk, left in a hotel room, or while I'm down the hallway from my
office at the copier. It is not high security, but it keeps honest
people honest and prevents casual thieves from walking away with my
PB. And now, when my PB wakes up and asks for a password, the
"hint" reads "$$ for Return" and offers my phone number.
The lessons are: (1) Use password protection. It works. (2)
Don't leave your computer on your porch for even a few minutes. (3)
Keep a record of your serial number (Thanks Apple!!) (4) Use
lockdown cables. (5) Consider advertising a reward if your PB is
stolen. (6) Back up your data.
Best of luck to you in recovering from your loss.
More on Password Security
Following are quotes from a few articles in the Apple Knowledge
Base Archive.
Article
19161 If you forget your password . . . take
your PowerBook, with your proof of purchase (receipt), to an Apple
Authorized Service Provider, where a technician has the means to
bypass the password security.
Article
24014 Do not under any circumstances enable the
PowerBook 3400 password security if
you have At Ease 4.0.x installed on the PowerBook and you
have enabled the "Prevent users from bypassing security by starting
up from a floppy disk" option in the At Ease administration
program. The hard disk driver becomes corrupted in such a way that
the PowerBook is unable to start up. Additionally, the computer
will not start up from a floppy disk, CD, or in SCSI disk
mode.
Article
24128 On PowerBook
2400 and 3400 systems, Password Security software is not
compatible with Mac OS 8.0. Other PowerBook systems are not
affected.
Article
28015 This article is the About Mac OS 8 Read
Me file. If you have formatted your internal hard disk so it has
more than one partition, only the start up partition will be
password protected. Additionally, if more than one partition
has a System Folder, the PowerBook may start up from a
non-protected partition.
Article
30371 Password Security v1.0.6, installed by
Mac OS 8.1, will not work properly if installed on a Mac OS
Extended (HFS Plus) Volume.
Article
30345 Mac OS 8.1: About Mac OS 8.1 Update. Do
not use the Password Security control panel if you plan to password
protect and then start up from a Mac OS Extended (HFS+) formatted
volume.
Article
30340 Mac OS 8.1 will not install the new
Password Security control panel on a PowerBook 2400 or 3400 unless
it already exists in the Control Panels folder. As noted in
Article
24128, Password Security is not compatible with these models
under OS 8.1 and should not be used.
Article
60302 If a user has a 2-byte (Chinese, Korean,
Japanese) Language Kit installed . . . it is possible to create a
password that can't be typed.
Article
19358 There is a known issue with the password
security feature on the PowerBook
5300 and 190 series computers.
This issue is resolved by installing the System 7.5 Update 2.0
which includes the Password Security 1.0.3 control panel.
Article
25058 Apple has identified an issue with the
interaction of Password Security 2.0 and Kotoeri (Japanese Input
Method) under Mac OS 8.6.
Article
58386 When the PowerBook G3 Series [Lombard/Bronze Keyboard] wakes from sleep,
the Password Security control panel is activating before the
PowerBook has a chance to enable the USB bus. This results in any
external USB keyboard not working.
Article
60583 Under Mac OS 09, Password Security
protects one partition only.
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Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work
for all. Computers are like that. Please report errors to Dan Knight
.
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I had bought a 
