Thursday, May 06, 2004
Theft
In a bit of odd news, the laptops that I use at work were stolen earlier this week. Basically, I'm working on a project that uses a distributed computing system, and so we've been running our tests on 3 high-end laptops that were purchased specifically for this purpose. They were pretty fast, with 2 GB of RAM, so I imagine it's about $10K worth of computers that were stolen.
Now, there are a couple of weird things about this heist. For one, we keep the laptops locked up. It's true, they're pretty crappy little laptop locks, but when we found the laptops missing, there were no signs of damage. This means that whomever took the laptops likely knew the combination. I'm reassured in this belief by the fact that the combinations on the locks were also changed. This strikes me as something very unusual for a thief to take the time to do. Now, it wouldn't have been that tough to figure out the combos to the locks. In a bit of stupidity, we had set all of the combinations to be the same - this was really just a convenience for us - who can be bothered to remember THREE three-digit numbers? Furthermore, we never really thought they would be stolen. (Ah, youthful innocence, or, rather, naivete.) So, when we would unlock the laptops, we usually would leave the combinations on the lock. Anyone clever enough could have looked at the combinations at one time and then remembered them for later.
It's also kind of unusual when they were taken. When I'm working, I frequently need to connect to these machines, although they are not visible from my office. Both myself and one of my co-workers were connecting to the machine right before they were taken. I was connecting up until around 6-6:30pm. I stopped to write some code, and then tried to test it out and connect again at 7:30. My connection failed, but I assumed it was just a network problem. I decided to call it a night and just try and connect tomorrow, but just in case there was something awry (like a cable unplugged), I went to the lab where the laptops were...or, rather, should have been...to see what was up. That's when I discovered them gone. That means the person who took them did so at a time when myself or my co-worker could very well have walked right in on them. That's chutzpah!
Now, there are some security cameras in my office, but they're only near the exits. Laptops aren't that big, and while they can scan the tapes for anyone exiting with a decent amount of luggage, I doubt they'll find much. We know the time window when the laptops were taken, but I figure that if the thief was clever enough, he (we'll assume it's a he, and you can be sure no one will mind that assumption - people only mind if you assume good people are male, not bad people) just took the laptops, and maybe hid them in his office. Then, later, he can take them out one by one, at a time when we're not scanning the tapes. People take stuff in and out of my office building all the time. If he had the balls to take the laptops when people were at the office, he certainly has the guts to try to sneak them out later, instead of just hauling ass out the building immediately.
It's nice that these weren't my personal laptops, but it's still a gigantic pain in the butt. They didn't even have any data on them that we can't replace, but we had them configured all nice and perfect, and now we have to waste two days setting them back up. To be honest, I guess that's the price of being too trusting. I really hope it turns out not to be one of my co-workers. I really have no idea at this point. I wonder if we'll ever know. But if you do see three cheap D600 Dell laptops turn up on eBay, please give me a holler.
Now, there are a couple of weird things about this heist. For one, we keep the laptops locked up. It's true, they're pretty crappy little laptop locks, but when we found the laptops missing, there were no signs of damage. This means that whomever took the laptops likely knew the combination. I'm reassured in this belief by the fact that the combinations on the locks were also changed. This strikes me as something very unusual for a thief to take the time to do. Now, it wouldn't have been that tough to figure out the combos to the locks. In a bit of stupidity, we had set all of the combinations to be the same - this was really just a convenience for us - who can be bothered to remember THREE three-digit numbers? Furthermore, we never really thought they would be stolen. (Ah, youthful innocence, or, rather, naivete.) So, when we would unlock the laptops, we usually would leave the combinations on the lock. Anyone clever enough could have looked at the combinations at one time and then remembered them for later.
It's also kind of unusual when they were taken. When I'm working, I frequently need to connect to these machines, although they are not visible from my office. Both myself and one of my co-workers were connecting to the machine right before they were taken. I was connecting up until around 6-6:30pm. I stopped to write some code, and then tried to test it out and connect again at 7:30. My connection failed, but I assumed it was just a network problem. I decided to call it a night and just try and connect tomorrow, but just in case there was something awry (like a cable unplugged), I went to the lab where the laptops were...or, rather, should have been...to see what was up. That's when I discovered them gone. That means the person who took them did so at a time when myself or my co-worker could very well have walked right in on them. That's chutzpah!
Now, there are some security cameras in my office, but they're only near the exits. Laptops aren't that big, and while they can scan the tapes for anyone exiting with a decent amount of luggage, I doubt they'll find much. We know the time window when the laptops were taken, but I figure that if the thief was clever enough, he (we'll assume it's a he, and you can be sure no one will mind that assumption - people only mind if you assume good people are male, not bad people) just took the laptops, and maybe hid them in his office. Then, later, he can take them out one by one, at a time when we're not scanning the tapes. People take stuff in and out of my office building all the time. If he had the balls to take the laptops when people were at the office, he certainly has the guts to try to sneak them out later, instead of just hauling ass out the building immediately.
It's nice that these weren't my personal laptops, but it's still a gigantic pain in the butt. They didn't even have any data on them that we can't replace, but we had them configured all nice and perfect, and now we have to waste two days setting them back up. To be honest, I guess that's the price of being too trusting. I really hope it turns out not to be one of my co-workers. I really have no idea at this point. I wonder if we'll ever know. But if you do see three cheap D600 Dell laptops turn up on eBay, please give me a holler.
Comments:
Post a Comment
