Sean Feeney
Architect of the digital age

SETI Project recovers stolen laptop

15 February 2007

A man running the SETI@home application (a distributed computing project sponsored by UC Berkeley) on his wife’s laptop assisted police in locating the laptop after it was stolen last month. The SETI@home database logs IP addresses at each login, and since the SETI@home app runs whenever the screensaver runs, the stolen laptop logged in automatically from the suspect’s home. The man was able to review his account logs on the SETI@home website and report the IP to authorities. “Officers subpoenaed Quest Communications, [the] Internet service provider, to determine the address where the stolen laptop logged onto the Internet. Within days, officers seized the computer and returned it to the rightful owners.”

Posted in stolen laptops

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