as it appeared in the October 3, 2008 edition of ACM TechNews.
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) and the University of California, San Diego have developed Adeona, free laptop-tracking software that records location information in a way that only a legitimate user can gain access to it. While most computer location data is transmitted and stored in an unencrypted form, making it particularly vulnerable to interception, Adeona uses cryptographic techniques to keep location information secure. A laptop running the software sends location information to a central server; the data is encrypted so it cannot be read without a private cryptographic key. Even if a laptop is stolen other cryptographic tricks prevent the tracking information from being used by the wrong people. "Most people are focusing on convenience and data-mining capabilities and forgetting about privacy," says Johns Hopkins University professor Aviel Rubin. "Seeing an effort to build something that will not compromise privacy even though it has every potential to--for me, it's refreshing." When Adeona is installed, a cryptographic key, known as a seed, is generated and stored separately on a USB flash drive or DVD for example. The seed is used to generate a unique cipher each time an update is sent to the server. To prevent a thief from discovering the original seed by analyzing past messages, the software also generates a new seed every time an update is sent. An add-on for Adeona also can periodically take photographs using a laptop's built-in camera to provide additional evidence to show police. "We're hoping other people will take this idea and extend it in other ways to make it more useful--for other types of electronic devices, or for other types of forensic confirmation," says UW professor Tadayoshi Kohno. Click Here to View Full Article
