Stolen MacBook laptop, what really can happen to it and what else can be done in attempt to locate/lock it from being accessible

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Stolen MacBook laptop, what really can happen to it and what else can be done in attempt to locate/lock it from being accessible

Hello community I will great appreciate your thoughts and help here,

Couple days ago on evening when I was walking back home from work I was approached by two armed individuals on their motorbike they robbed and stole my belongings which also included my MacBook Air of 2020.

I was not able to do anything about it right away, but on the following day I managed to get another device and logged in with my iCloud account and I could see my device pinned on a map in its last location and its last seen time was over 2 hours since the incident.

Here are some details about the Mac by the time it was stolen

It was running on OS Ventura
It had a fairly strong password
Touch ID enabled
Find my enabled
Bluetooth was turned ON
Wifi was turned OFF

My assumption is these people might have turned it off completely by that time or I don't know what else they might have done to stop it from sharing its updated location with Find my.

I activated lost mode from Find my but it still in pending state. I kept watching it over and over nothing seem to change.

Please if anyone has an idea on how things really work, for example:

Is there max number of days that Find my will continue tracking of the device when device is kept turned off for many days?
Is it easy for someone to crack/reset this Mac password and get amd do some stuff without being notified via iCloud or Find my?
Can they be able to easly reset it and maybe reinstall OS ans use it?

Please help and I'm open for your suggestions, thank you very much.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.0

Posted on Nov 25, 2023 11:42 PM

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Answer 1

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Servant of Cats

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17,044 points

Nov 26, 2023 1:06 AM in response to chrissglad

Activation Lock for Mac - Apple Support

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Activation Lock is available on Mac computers with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip. Additional requirements:

macOS Catalina or later
Two-factor authentication for Apple ID
On a Mac with Apple silicon, the security policy must be set to Full Security, the default setting.
On a Mac with the T2 chip, startup security must be set to Secure Boot and “Disallow booting from external media", the default settings.

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If your system meets those requirements, I don't think the thieves will be able to clear the Activation Lock, unless they know your Apple ID and Apple ID password; or your regular login password. (Or possibly if you left the system unlocked.)

They may be able to prevent the system from communicating its position by shutting it off, by waiting for it to run out of power, by moving it to a place where there is no Wi-Fi access point to which it has previously connected, or by placing it in a special bag designed to block Wi-Fi and other radio frequency signals.

But to use it, they'll need to get into it. If it is password-locked and both your local and Apple ID passwords are secure, I believe they're going to find that Activation Lock blocks their attempts to reset it and "make it their own." You may get phishing messages from "Apple Support" (actually: the criminals) saying they want to help "reunite" you with your laptop. Actually, what they want is for you to give them your credentials (so they can log in and get rid of Activation Lock, and perhaps defraud you in other ways) or to remove the Mac from the list of devices that are associated with your Apple ID (to clear Activation Lock and let them "make your Mac their own"). Don't bite.

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Stolen MacBook laptop, what really can happen to it and what else can be done in attempt to locate/lock it from being accessible

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