Mac Address + Security

[ImShane]

Hi,

I was told that the mac address, the physical address of the Macintosh can be changed, is this true?

Im just looking into security for my machines, if a mac got stolen, is there anyway you can trace it?

 

[Cindori]

just fyi, MAC-adress stands for Media Access Control, not Machintosh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Access_Control

 

[Transporteur]

Changing the MAC address requires one line in terminal.

 

[goMac]

Im just looking into security for my machines, if a mac got stolen, is there anyway you can trace it?

Nope. Even if the thief didn't change it, it would be very very hard to trace a machine by MAC address. You can't just find a machine on the net by MAC address.

Also, all devices on the internet have MAC addresses. MAC is not the same thing as a Macintosh. They just happen to be the same name by coincidence.

 

[codymac]

Hi,

I was told that the mac address, the physical address of the Macintosh can be changed, is this true?

Im just looking into security for my machines, if a mac got stolen, is there anyway you can trace it?

1 - Yes.

2 - No. About the only thing you can do is give the police the s/n and file it on insurance. I'm going through this myself at the moment.

You can set up icam or Vitamin D or one of the webcam capture apps and perhaps get photos to give to the police for identification, but don't hope for much in an urban area for a non-violent property crime.

 

[ImShane]

thanks for the replies guys and i know the the mac address has nothing to do with the actual macintosh

Anyway, to go to an extreme level is there something out there like a gps tracking device of some sort you can stick in the machine lol, im serious tho

 

[goMac]

thanks for the replies guys and i know the the mac address has nothing to do with the actual macintosh

Anyway, to go to an extreme level is there something out there like a gps tracking device of some sort you can stick in the machine lol, im serious tho

Not really. Just don't let the machine get away from your person, or keep it locked up. Or get insurance.

 

[codymac]

thanks for the replies guys and i know the the mac address has nothing to do with the actual macintosh

Anyway, to go to an extreme level is there something out there like a gps tracking device of some sort you can stick in the machine lol, im serious tho

LoJack and some other companies have some tracking stuff that is supposed to mail out or somehow let you know the IP and/or other details about the machine's location. I recall one of them would even take snapshots with the built in camera on laptops and forward them.

There's even a free/open source package that works similarly (can't recall the name).

No idea how effective they are.

Homeowner's covered my stuff.

 

[Vylen]

I dunno... but if you're tech savvy, you could get an Arduino or similar, stick an accelerometer and a GPS unit... kicks on the GPS when the movement is detected...

Get it small enough and hide it under the CPU daughterboard - i think there's room... maybe