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Undercover Mac software dismantles drug network

Orbicule announced that Undercover, its flagship anti-theft software, assisted in the recovery of a stolen MacBook in Norway. But that's only half the story.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

Thieves working on Petter's stolen MacOrbicule announced that Undercover, its flagship anti-theft software, assisted in the recovery of a stolen MacBook in Norway. But that's only half the story.

Evidence gathered by the Undercover software allowed Norwegian police to recover more than just the stolen MacBook -- they also dismantled an entire drug network.

Early this morning I received a new email from Orbicule. This time they received several pictures from the machine. The pictures were in an amazing quality - as if taken with a normal digital camera! They showed four people sitting behind the computer, and there was also a screenshot where one of them wrote his name.

After some research I found out that one of these persons was actually the leading drugs dealer in our region. I quickly gathered the pictures and gave them to the local police. About two hours later I got a call from the police asking me to tell them more about Undercover, and how I got these pictures. They told me that one of the persons in the pictures was someone the police had been looking for a long time, and this was highly interesting to them. Over the next days I regularly had contact with Orbicule. I received even more pictures and some quite interesting screenshots with addresses, phone numbers, names, and much more.

Undercover determines the thief's location with Wi-Fi positioning from Skyhook Wireless and transmits iSight pictures and screenshots from the stolen Mac. It also has an ingenious plan B: simulating a hardware failure on the stolen Mac, urging the thief to bring the stolen Mac to an Apple store for repair, where it can be recovered.

A single user license of Undercover costs $49 and an iPhone version is available for $4.99.

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