My PC was stolen. Any advice?

[Tay]

Hey everybody,

So yesterday my PC got stolen. The PC was encrypted and locked, so that's good, and it didn't have anything especially content-sensitive. That said, it was still pretty unnerving. Have any of you had a PC or gadget stolen? Any advice? 

I did go and change my major passwords and log that PC out of all my services, remotely. So I've at least made it that far.

[Novel21]

Go to the police and tell them your PC was stolen and you can share the news on social site, like facebook and twitter, so they can look for your pc and tell you they have find Your PC or not.

[Forgetful Frank]

Double, triple check every site you can possibly remember still being logged into and having passwords saved for. I know you already said you made it that far, but there's always a chance you could have forgotten some. Especially since you just unfortunately experienced being robbed.

I'd also recommend changing some sensitive email addresses you may use that are private. My example is I have an email address solely for my bank and trusted shopping sites I have payment options saved to. If this happened to me, I would definitely change that specific email address. Especially if I start receiving spam mail after all the years I've had my secret email address, I've never once received any spam.

Sorry to hear about this, Tay. I wish you all the best.

[Darbury]

Ouch! Sorry to hear it, Tay. 

As a New Yorker who's had plenty of stuff stolen over the years, I've managed to get a surprising* number of items back by keeping an eye on Craigslist sales for my area and the surrounding area. Not saying it's likely in this case, but it's worth a shot.

*Two. Which is unsurprisingly better than zero.

[Jade]

Spend moar on Home security Tay  

[Novel21]

Well that might be true Emi. but Tay can at last try to post on facebook or twitter and see what happend after that

[havoc]

Sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately i cant help you as i have never had anything stolen from me.
And stealing my pc would be kind of impractical. Its a full tower case weighing in at about 20 kg loaded, and in order to get it out of the house you would need to go down two stairs and on each side is a bedroom.
Simply put any thief that would try to steal mine is basically guaranteed to get noticed.

[DarkZedge]

Something like this?

In all seriousness now, I'm really sorry to hear that this happened to you Tay and as to how to proceed I think that @Novel21 was on the right track by reporting it and then check out the social networks and sharing there.

[DharmaFreedom]

What @Novel21 said.  It may feel like it won't amount to much for some, but the reason you lodge a report immediately is if the police manages to nab anyone during other arrests, they can check the guys inventory and cross check the reports. Its a small chance but its still a chance. You can't go chasing the guy so might as well do what you can right?

. If you want to spend more effort in your search, you could probably print some fliers and pass them to the pawnshops in your area with a reward. 

Sucks that  you got robbed, but at least you didn't get hurt man! I'm sure all the fuwa people are glad about that!

[iamnoob]

1 hour ago, Tay said:

Hey everybody,

So yesterday my PC got stolen. The PC was encrypted and locked, so that's good, and it didn't have anything especially content-sensitive. That said, it was still pretty unnerving. Have any of you had a PC or gadget stolen? Any advice? 

I did go and change my major passwords and log that PC out of all my services, remotely. So I've at least made it that far.

 

Go to 2nd hand PC stores and see if they are trying to resell your stuff.

Also if you have the serial number for you PC, give it to the police to help them search.

[Silvz]

tell the cops there were some loli content on the computer, they may call FBI and get your pc back

[littleshogun]

To answer admin question here, not. Never had my gadget stolen here, although I remember that my father was had his handphone pick-pocketed ie stolen. I couldn't offer any useful advice here other than make a report to the police there (Also be careful in future), and hope you could get through this.

PS - Did you had laptop? If so, then you could use your laptop there for a while until you buy new PC.

[Tyr]

6 hours ago, Forgetful Frank said:

Double, triple check every site you can possibly remember still being logged into and having passwords saved for. I know you already said you made it that far, but there's always a chance you could have forgotten some. Especially since you just unfortunately experienced being robbed.

I'd also recommend changing some sensitive email addresses you may use that are private. My example is I have an email address solely for my bank and trusted shopping sites I have payment options saved to. If this happened to me, I would definitely change that specific email address. Especially if I start receiving spam mail after all the years I've had my secret email address, I've never once received any spam.

I don't understand why any of this would be necessary.
Tay said the PC was encrypted. That's enough. There is no way anyone can access the data on the hard drives. (If that wasn't the case, the encryption would be meaningless. And I assume Tay wouldn't use a meaningless encryption.)
Changing everything, especially e-mail addresses, is a hassle not worth it if there is no benefit at all. In fact, I think it's pretty hard and stressful to coordinate such an intensive change of private information.
And, like I said, nothing of this is necessary. The PC was encrypted. No one can crack this safe. Tay's private information is secure.

[sanahtlig]

The person who stole your PC is not a 4chan troll.  He's likely a criminal trying to make a quick buck by selling the hardware.  I wouldn't fret so much about the security risk.  You could report a fraud alert to the credit report companies, and that will keep people from trying to take out new credit lines in your name without overly inconveniencing you.  I do this anyway even with no reason to suspect fraud.

If this was a laptop, then now you know you can't leave it unattended.  Ever.

If this was a desktop PC, then likely your residence has been broken into and other things stolen as well.  Unfortunately, a determined criminal is difficult to stop.  All you can do is try to be a little bit more secure than everyone around you and hope they target your neighbors instead.

[Narcosis]

>my pc was stolen

You meant laptop, right?

Bummer nude, man. Hopefully you didn't hid loli pics on the HDD.

[Darklord Rooke]

7 hours ago, Tay said:

Hey everybody,

So yesterday my PC got stolen. The PC was encrypted and locked, so that's good, and it didn't have anything especially content-sensitive. That said, it was still pretty unnerving. Have any of you had a PC or gadget stolen? Any advice? 

I did go and change my major passwords and log that PC out of all my services, remotely. So I've at least made it that far.

No, but had a bunch of kids break into the house and swipe just over a thousand dollars from the place while around the back yard talking.

Afterward, after chatting with some people who were targeted while in the shower or doing the laundry, I always secure the place now when I’m not going to be in a position to stop people entering the house. It doesn’t matter if you’ll be away for just 10 minutes, or 5 minutes, sometimes that’s all it takes.

The police won’t help much either. “We know who’s doing it, but not much we can do” is pretty much the response I got. Security is probably considered your personal responsibility, I believe, so you gotta try and make yourself not look like a soft target.

[Forgetful Frank]

2 hours ago, Tyrosyn said:

I don't understand why any of this would be necessary.
Tay said the PC was encrypted. That's enough. There is no way anyone can access the data on the hard drives. (If that wasn't the case, the encryption would be meaningless. And I assume Tay wouldn't use a meaningless encryption.)
Changing everything, especially e-mail addresses, is a hassle not worth it if there is no benefit at all. In fact, I think it's pretty hard and stressful to coordinate such an intensive change of private information.
And, like I said, nothing of this is necessary. The PC was encrypted. No one can crack this safe. Tay's private information is secure.

If you think having encrypted files means your data is 100% safe, you are very ignorant. Nothing is ever truly secure, and I would rather be safe than sorry. Sure the chances of his encrypted data being breached may be low, but not impossible. I'd personally rather not take that chance, especially after witnessing such a scenario in the past. I take my personal information security very seriously.

[Tyr]

2 minutes ago, Forgetful Frank said:

If you think having encrypted files means your data is 100% safe, you are very ignorant.

If you think that hdd encryption isn't safe, you probably watched to many episodes CSI or you're falling for NSA propaganda.
A well-encrypted system is as safe as it can be and it's practically impossible to crack. Every instance of cracking an encryption you may have read about somewhere is always the consequence of human failure or bad encryption.

But even if Tay didn't use a good encryption or used a bad password (and I mean "very bad", not just "not good"), cracking it would still require a state-of-the-art tech equipment only very specialized law enforcement agencies have, certainly not some random thief.

If this wasn't the case, encrypting data would essentially be useless. And it isn't.

[shadowolf64]

How was it stolen if you don't mind me asking? Were you out and about and have your laptop stolen or was it something in you home and it was broken into? If it was while you were out it will be a lot more difficult to get police or anyone to do much of anything in my experience. 

I had an iPod stolen from me back in the day and I knew who had taken it but I had no proof so there wasn't much I could do about it in the eyes of the law. From now on I always recommend you keep your serial numbers and purchase proof for expensive or important things. 

[Forgetful Frank]

1 minute ago, Tyrosyn said:

If you think that hdd encryption isn't safe, you probably watched to many episodes CSI or you're falling for NSA propaganda.
A well-encrypted system is as safe as it can be and it's practically impossible to crack. Every instance of cracking an encryption you may have read about somewhere is always the consequence of human failure or bad encryption.

But even if Tay didn't use a good encryption or used a bad password (and I mean "very bad", not just "not good"), cracking it would still require a state-of-the-art tech equipment only very specialized law enforcement agencies have, certainly not some random thief.

If this wasn't the case, encrypting data would essentially be useless. And it isn't.

I never said encryption 'isn't safe', I said it isn't '100% safe'. At the end of the day, I personally wouldn't take a risk, no matter how small when it comes to personal information falling into the wrong hands. Tay asked the community for some advice, and I gave mine.