So you got yourself a new Macbook or an iPhone and someone swiped it? Good news – if you were lucky and installed something like Undercover you will most likely be able to track down the thieves and recover your lovely little machine.

How does it work?
Undercover installs itself into the bios of the Apple device and with the installation you get a unique device ID, that you need to provide when reporting a theft.
When the machine goes online Undercover constantly checks if the device ID is reported as stolen or not. If it is reported as stolen the device will send geographical information about its location to Undercover. It will also transmit screen shots and if possible photos of the thief. Undercover will then contact local law enforcement to recover the stolen device.

If law enforcement fails to recover it, Undercover slowly renders the device useless and counts on the fact that the thief will then either sell the device or send it in for repair. Because of geographical awareness, Undercover then display a message to the repair center or new buyer, that this is a stolen machine that needs to be returned.

Undercover can not be disabled by the thief. If you install Apple’s firmware password, your Mac can not be formatted without knowing your firmware password.

This seems to be an awesome protection from thieves and it comes at a very reasonable price.