Mac Thief Caught Thanks To Applescript & Timbuktu

el.cerrito.slasher sent in an amusing bit found on MacSlash. This story is a tale of a stolen iMac that just happened to be running Timbuktu (a remote control program like VNC I believe). Well the stolen box kept getting used, and the owner was able to track it down through a variety of amusing Timbuktu Fu. Funny story.

Re:Good Idea

[Alan Partridge]

maybe, but then you'd have to get a load of Mac install disks and a bootable disk to ake the computer useful again - no-one's gona want an iMac with no software on it, and no theif is gonna want to steal something worth a few hundred only to have to spend money on it to get it going again. This isn't Lex Luthor we're talking about here, this is probably some kid theiving to buy crack.

Re:Can I do this with my laptop?

[athmanb]

Rule Nr. 1 in criminology: 95% of criminals are idiots. If they weren't, they would risk a year long jail term e.g. by robbing a liquor store for 100$.

You would be smart enough to swap hard drives to evade detection, but you'd also be smart enough to not steal a computer...

Re:applescript strikes back

[Alan Partridge]

AppleScript is UNBELEIVABLY easy to write. If you have any kind of logic in your soul and speak English, you can automate your plastic pal to death. We actually run our business on .as, it's just great to have a script that runs when you drop a video capure file on a folder, runs Cleaner to compress it, BBEdit to knock up some HTML, DeBabelizer to cobble together some GIF thumbnails, Fetch to upload it and IE to spring open to look at the site. All while preparing coffee or beating the crap out of some guards in Oni.

Re:Can I do this with my laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe. But, really, if you judge criminals only by those that get caught, the basis on which you make your judgment is significantly biased. To wit: you don't know the ratio of criminals who were caught to criminals who were not. Since the criminals who never got caught aren't accounted for, your statement looses most of its edge.

(That is: since your argument equates "idiocy" with poor risk-taking, we can only presume that good risk-takers are not idiots. Further, since "risk," by your definition, relates to both the negative, legal consequences of crime, as well as the "positive" material consequences, we must assume that those who've calculated the risk such as to avoid the negative, legal consequences--yet attain their material or criminal goals--are fairly apt risk-takers.)

Of course, you could be saying that 95% of all criminals get caught... and that because poor judgment equals idiocy, 95% of criminals are idiots... but that thinking is so divorced from reality that it can be dismissed.

So... really, your line of thinking is dangerous because it underestimates criminals grossly.

Re:Cliff Stoll flashback|easy tagging scritps foru

[PhilHibbs]

My machine runs:
/bin/date | mail
/sbin/ifconfig -a | mail
..it has crossed my mind that if my machine were to get stolen it might report back to me where it was. I'd happy to see that it's worked out at least once for someone.

Except that they'd switch it off when thay saw the Linux boot sequence, reformat it, and put Windoze on it. Not many computer thieves are L1nux h4x0rz, I guess.

Re:No, the thief wasn't caught.

[RedX]

Sounds like the police must've come up with some good info linking her to the actual theft if she "pled out" to possession of stolen property, especially considering they initially wouldn't even pursue the possession charge. For such a fairly small crime, it wouldn't be uncommon for the actual thief to strike a deal for lesser charges.

Re:Neat! But . . .

[Triv]

no offense mate, but I think you're reading into this a little too deeply. A parable for you - how many car theifs take their newly acquired goods around town for a spin? Not many - if they do, they're idiots. No, the first thing they do is get it to a chop shop as soon as humanly possible to be sold for parts. The parts themselves are worth much more than the car as a whole. Some guy who steals your computer doesn't care what you're running or what your password is - he cares how large (and popular) your HD is and if the cd-rom's a dvd too. It's not about the machine, it's about the total income derived from selling all the parts. You could be running Basic for all he cares; if it spins or hums or whatever he can sell it. Triv

Re:Illegal hacking?

[dhamsaic]

Uh, except that it had a passworded remote-access program on it (Timbuktu) that told a master server that it was indeed his (sister's) computer. It's more the equivalent of... well, someone stealing your computer, then you connecting to it 'cause it phoned you up and said "Hey! Here I am!". Please read the article before posting - all of this was covered.

Re:applescript strikes back

[melatonin]

Yikes! That is some urglee code. I mean come on, since when has code used a possessive apostrophe? It's just......wrong.

Uh, no, it just makes sense. Possessive apostrophes are awesome for programming languages.

c++/java:
foo->bar()

AppleScript:
foo's bar()
bar() of foo

It's a hell of a lot easier to type.

PHP:
$myArray[3]

WebSiphon:
myArray'3

It's not wrong, it makes sense. Just try typing those lines of code there. I wish more programming languages used it.

And ya, it's very easy to write. That is, once you understand that it is a programming language which has its own way of forming meaningful statements, so that something that makes sense in English doesn't necessarily mean it will make sense to AppleScript :)

AS is best for making objects from different programs work together. It's a solution to the interoperability problem. Each program can describe itself with verbs and nouns, and AppleScript's syntax is very good at mashing those things from different programs together.

It's not so great for coding intense algorithms, as it tends to be verbose.

set foo to 5
foo = 5

When you do have to make programs talk to each other, AS makes wonderful glue. AS is intended to exploit logic in other code, so rather than running awk/sed to munge my text, or use the language's text manipulation expressions (as you would in Perl), I'll get BBEdit to open the text file, and use all it's insanely powerful multi-file regex features. Apps in OS X are supposed to support opening files and doing operations on them without presenting a user interface specifically for this purpose.

No need for CORBA to solve those problems :P

Amazing that nobody has thought of...

[MsGeek]

...the security implications of this "suicide script". I can easily see someone taking this applescript and tweaking it to create a really nasty trojan. Hope all you Mac users are either running a current version of an anti-virus proggie or have applescript disabled...

Privacy?

[allenw]

Interesting story. But there is one part that has me a bit concerned:

The Timbuktu extension that's installed on it posts a unique identifier to Netopia's IP Locator server (findme.netopia.com) whenever it connects to the internet.

What about the privacy aspects of this? Sure, in this instance it worked out to be a good thing, but do you really want someone else to know where you are using their license? How is this different than Windows XP phone home? What -other- information is being transmitted to Netopia?

Right (not)

[mikey504]

Flushed with a sense of accomplishment from landing a cushy job getting cussed at, spit on, and occasionally having to duck bullets for the princely sum of $18,000/year, these guys really get off on standing in the rain writing tickets.

More likely it is because ticket revenue makes up a large portion of most department's annual budget, so it's more like, "If you want a new bullet proof vest you better get out there and write daddy some tickets like a good little bitch." It is inconceivable to me that these guys actually have ticket quotas. Does that mean we aren't doing our job as a citizen if we don't occasionally get caught speeding so we can pay our "supplemental taxes"?

Don't hate the cops-- hate the administration that wastes all your tax money and police resources on the "war on drugs", and forces officers to whore in the streets for money to shore up budget holes that are left behind as a result.

Hate the "police state" if you want, but try to remember that cops are people too, and a lot of them hate their jobs and bosses as much as you hate yours, only they are hating theirs for less money with a much greater risk of injury or death in most cases.

My dad was a police officer for a while, and he used to tell me, "Cops are people, just like everyone else. The problem is that for what they are paying, you tend to get two kinds of candidates: starry-eyed idealists naieve enough to think they can "make a difference", and people who couldn't find a job doing anything else." Unfortunately there is a shortage of the first kind. Feel free to sign up if you would like to offer your intelligence and talents to serving the community for little or no compensation.

When I told him I was thinking about becoming a police officer he told me, "Son, if you have any involvement with law enforcement it better be from the other side. You will make a hell of a lot more money, and people will respect you more. If that doesn't help you make up your mind know that I would rather shoot you myself than hear someone else shot you."

I think most of what is wrong with police services today comes from the top down more than the bottom up. Even granted that you aren't working with the best and brightest most of the time, if the administration pointed them in the right direction and focused on the right things we would al be happier, officers included.

Re:Can I do this with my laptop?

[nick_davison]

"Rule Nr. 1 in criminology: 95% of criminals are idiots. If they weren't, they would risk a year long jail term e.g. by robbing a liquor store for 100$."

Except for the basic problem that punishment doesn't work as a deterrant if it's not consistent.

Take speeding for example - which we can all relate to. You do ten miles an hour over and get a ticket for $75 one time in a thousand. You're still going to speed.

If you got a $1000 fine for speeding one time in a thousand, you'd still do it because you'll never be that unlucky. If you do get caught, you'll just complain about how unfair it was that the other 999 guys get away and why should you be punished so disproportionately.

With most 'criminal' actions, the belief is that you won't get caught. You need to up the frequency of the consequences, not the amount. The down side of that is that's a near impossible thing to do.

Re:Can I do this with my laptop?

[Courageous]

With most 'criminal' actions, the belief is that you won't get caught.

An apt insight. If you were to take a look at the mind of a developing criminal, you will often find someone who, after one or two several nervous crimes, discovers that getting caught is actually indeed quite rare. After this discovery, they become increasingly brazen, disregarding basic precaution. This is how most criminals actually get caught.

C//

Re:Erase the HD...

[stud9920]

But most thieves are dumb, or at least cheap; do you think they are going to erase PhotoShop, etc and go out and buy a copy

Of course, a mere little burglar only willing to break into your house, will NEVER dare to make an illegal copy of Photoshop, which is a capital offense.