Computrace - How does it work on a MacBook Pro

Question

Computrace - How does it work on a MacBook Pro

My company is doing research for a client of ours regarding your product. Does anyone know how the product works on macbook pro laptops?

1. Is it a piece of software? Or would we need to order macbook pro's with computrace installed on the main board itself?

2. What would happen if the macbook is stolen and the hard disk is removed or replaced? Does the macbook report back to them or not?

3. How does Computrace works with Encrypted Hard Drives, does it play well or causes problems?

4. What happens if the firmware is password protected, will it run even if that is the case?

Thanks!

Tp!

Posted on Jul 18, 2012 6:04 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 18, 2012 8:09 PM in response to Tribal Plague

1. It's software. It's not embedded into the hardware.

2. Nope. It's gone.

3. No issues we've seen

4. Yes it will run.

In a nutshell, it's only effective if the theif is really stupid and knows nothing about swapping or erasing drives, which is what we've dealt with on a couple occasions where we were able to retrieve the laptop. But if the thief is Mac savvy, then the laptop is gone.

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Answer 2

Jul 19, 2012 3:38 AM in response to Tribal Plague

Tribal Plague wrote:

Why is Computrace allowed into the BIOS of PC's but not into the EFI of macs. EFI is basically an equivalent of a BIOS. Is it true Apple doesnt allow people to store stuff in the Mac EFI?

Yes, that's true.

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Answer 3

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Jul 18, 2012 8:01 PM in response to Tribal Plague

I think these are the folks you should be asking your questions to:

http://www.absolute.com/products/endpoint-security

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Answer 4

Jul 18, 2012 10:32 PM in response to sig

I know they make the software, I emailed them already but I wanted to see the reaction here and gather information faster.

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Answer 5

Jul 18, 2012 10:34 PM in response to Templeton Peck

Why is Computrace allowed into the BIOS of PC's but not into the EFI of macs. EFI is basically an equivalent of a BIOS. Is it true Apple doesnt allow people to store stuff in the Mac EFI?

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