FrontDoor Anti-theft Protection Software: Windows Edition

Every Hopkins student receives the daily Incident Reports from Campus Security, and somehow the addition of these emails made crime more noticeable in our lives. Despite the warnings to be vigilant and reminders to keep personal belongings with you at all times, it is a sad truth that our cash, debit and credit cards, and phones are still stolen on an almost quotidian basis. A laptop is, perhaps, the most devastating item to lose because it undoubtedly is home to irreplaceable pictures, essays, and research data. This can sometimes result in a loss of years of work.

It is impossible to know when you will be the victim of a crime, and it can happen to anyone. Hopkins Security knows this, so they have discovered a way for students, faculty, and staff to maximize the chance that stolen computers will be returned to their rightful owners. In fact, if you have read the Daily Incident Reports this week, Monday's mentioned something called FrontDoor Software. To download a free copy of the software and protect your computer, go to frontdoorsoftware.com/jhu right away. Make sure to use your @jhu.edu email! Having this software increases your chances of recovering your laptop from 3% to as much as 95%. For free, it's worth having.

This is the FrontDoor logo. I think the dog is a Newfoundland. 

FrontDoor Software Security is a program that uses a registered computer's wireless connectivity to track its movements, which is similar to other recovery programs. FrontDoor allows an owner of a stolen computer to log in to another computer to report the stolen laptop. At this point, FrontDoor will turn on its arsenal of unique features and start the recovery process. Once the computer is connected to a wireless network, the Skyhook Location SDK will quickly obtain the location of the laptop, and you can actually see the last known location of the computer on the user interface screen at FrontDoorSoftware.com.

The list of locations where FrontDoor has registered my computer.

Skyhook Location SDK is able to obtain the location within 4 seconds, a fact that I have verified through my own experimenting with FrontDoor. It's also accurate to within 10 meters, but this accuracy is diminished when inside a large building (of which there are many around the Hopkins campus). Finally, Skyhook boasts a 99.8% availability, which means it can work at almost any time. The coverage around Baltimore is very high, as expected, but this is not the case everywhere, so check availability at your permanent residence. 

The features of FrontDoor are pretty simple to enable; simply go to the user interface login page, go to the directory, and hit the "Stolen and Lock" tab. Click the edit button to mark the stolen and lock boxes, depending on what you prefer to do. By remotely locking the stolen computer, you protect your information from the thief. By reporting it stolen, on the other hand, you set off a series of events. First the computer will display a message with your contact information, just in case it was all an honest mistake, and Campus Security picked up what they thought was an abandoned device.

The Stolen and Lock screen. Don't forget to hit the Update button!

To deter a real thief, the computer equipped with FrontDoor Software will then actually start to make loud noises, shouting phrases such as: "Help! This computer has been reported as stolen or lost!" and "You are not my owner! Return me now!" If the culprit has taken the computer to a public place, this will certainly attract attention, and the suspect will most likely flee the scene without the laptop. An honest person can then come up, view your contact information, and alert you to the location of the laptop.

Once a computer is reported as stolen, Campus Security is also informed of the situation and will be notified.

Overall my review is that FrontDoor software has a few kinks in it, and whether that stems from design flaws, incorrect installation, or lack of knowledge regarding the software itself has yet to be determined. It would be a good idea for Hopkins security and IT Services to both become more acquainted with the software so they can help students use the software effectively. Considering that this service is free for students and faculty, and that the location services are very impressive and accurate, every student should install this on his or her computer. It could make a difference one day, and that's a chance I'm willing to take.

The Smart Security Grid

One of the biggest issues of the modern day is, without a doubt, energy. We are obsessed with how to use less and generate more of it, or at least take what we have and use it more efficiently. The Obama Administration has noticed this (of course), and expanded the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide for the development of new electric grid technology, which holds the key to advanced energy management and pecuniary savings. Because it is such a large undertaking, the project also promises job creation and energy independence. But this sounds too good to be true, so what's the catch?

The downside to a giant grid is lack of security. The grid is obviously an interconnected web of networks that would be extremely vulnerable to attack from hackers and worms in the system, and because it would be such a central part of how the country runs itself, any attack could result in a massive loss of electrical services. Attack isn't the only downside to a large grid; this kind of project has never been done on such a large scale, and there are definitely unforeseen problems in putting so much energy into one place.

Even if all these disadvantages are disregarded for a moment, there is still the problem of how to run the grid itself. With so many different utilities, providers, and consumers scattered across it, the need for a consistent operating system is imperative. Which system should be used? Experts are still working on that one, and it's not as easy as it sounds. Even if a framework was agreed upon, it would almost immediately have to be updated because of the rapid pace at which technology in general changes. The grid would need to evolve itself constantly to keep pace with demand.

In order for this project to be worked out, the general public of consumers must be educated about what this change could mean for themselves. Many times we will just see the good of a situation and blind ourselves to the bad. "Oh, better energy management? Sign us up!" we might be tempted to say, but the truth is that this issue is about more than reducing our carbon footprint. We might end up paying more (in dollars) for the giant energy grid, but because no one wants to pay more for something they already have, the majority of people might not even bother to switch. And that's not even considering the omnipresent issue of a lack of a generalized framework and cybersecurity network in place yet.

Do you know how much information your energy provider has about you? The answer is a lot. Any hacker or worm good enough to crack into the (currently) weak security system in an energy grid could access your information easily and quickly, and because energy companies are extremely wary of sending out any information about security attacks, you might not even know until it's too late.

This is a rather serious post this week about the dangers of technology, but it's here to highlight the need to understand all sides of an issue before we commit to something on a grand scale. Lesson of the day: do your research.