Remote Destruction of Data

Q: If your Mac gets stolen, can you erase your drive from a remote location, preventing the thief from getting your sensitive information?

A: Yes, but it’s not for the beginner.

Mac Geekery has put together a guide for setting up a script that looks out to the internet and checks for a file called ‘youve_been_stolen’, on a given web server. If it finds the file, it will proceed to erase your hard drive.

The idea is that if your laptop were to be stolen, you would upload this file to your server, and the next time your laptop connects to the internet, everything on it will be erased.

So, this is a bit over my head, but it sounds like a great idea. The author of the article assumes you know what you are doing, so this isn’t for a beginner. I HIGHLY recommend NOT trying this if you are not comfortable with what he is describing. Oh, and don’t ask them for a step-by-step (check the comments on the site). This really is not meant for beginners.

I personally am not experienced enough with scripting to try this. Does anyone know of a more user friendly solution?

Monday, May 15th, 2006 Tips & Tricks

1 Comment to Remote Destruction of Data

  1. Heh, that’s great! “youve_been _stolen”
    I imagine that would be rather traumatic for the poor Mac…. a bit like turning 30 and then getting a letter that says, “you_were_adopted”.

    2. Dale on May 15th, 2006

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