Ask HN: My home was burglarized today but my computer is still here

Post by logn » Wed, Jul 30, 2014, 3:16 AM UTC

If being bugged presents risk to your life or career (i.e., you're no average Joe) then you should just buy a new machine. If they bugged your hardware, bios, or other equipment, you might never know and it might not be removed after reformatting.

Also it could be that with a super custom and nice gaming machine, thieves didn't want it as it's too easy for you to recognize on the black market. And additionally, they might have worried you had a GPS or software which will phone home after it's been stolen.

And take a peak at the system logs too and your wi-fi logs.

Btw, a system lock won't keep any determined criminals out of your machine if they have physical access to it. Although, an encrypted drive and system locks would help, but maybe not in the case of a hardware bug.

Post by kazinator » Wed, Jul 30, 2014, 9:17 PM UTC

Can you give some examples of what was taken from the garage and house? This would help paint a picture of what the robbers were interested in.

That activity could always be a decoy, of course, to throw you off the scent; or it could simply be that the thieves really were interested in those items that they took and not your computers and electronics.

There are good reasons not to take large electronics: they are not that easy to turn into cash, and they are bulky items: poor dollar to volume/weight ratio. It's much better to steal actual cash. Or traditional valuables like gold.

What's better: a computer monitor you can hawk for 50 bucks at most? Or 4 grams of gold from an 18K ring, worth some 100 bucks? Or an actual $100 bill? This is why thieves went through drawers and cabinets: they want small things that are dense with value, and cash.

As far as electronics goes, small stuff like smartphones and tables packs more value.

I wouldn't get all paranoid. One thing to do, though, is to monitor your network traffic, especially outbound, to look for any suspicious activity.

Re: Ask HN: My home was burglarized today but my computer is still here

Re: Ask HN: My home was burglarized today but my computer is still here