A long time ago in a forum far far away, I came up with a couple of scripts that were quite popular at the time known as CentraTrack and CentraTrash.

Several users reported finding that their customers responded well to the promise that in the event of a laptop being stolen that CentraStage could delete sensitive data and even attempt to locate the missing device by picking up the external IP address of the internet connection. This is as good as a telephone number in locating the whereabouts of a connected device if ISP’s are feeling suitably cooperative.

While I don’t think that these scripts are going to be bringing down any major crime syndicates, it’s always nice to be able to offer customers that little bit extra and maybe even charge for it too

I have redesigned these components to make them more efficient and also compatible with the new CentraStage input variables. Hence the v2 alluded to in the title. Both of these components are now available to download from the ComStore.

Both scripts are designed to be run from CentraStage in the same way by following these steps:

Here’s a breakdown of the two scripts and what they do:

• Create a profile called something like ‘Stolen Devices’
• Select the profile using it’s check box and use the ‘Schedule a Job’ icon from the action bar
• Schedule a job to run every morning at say 8:00 with either CentraTrack, CentraTrash or both
• Move any stolen devices into this ‘Stolen Devices’ profile ASAP and they will get the jobs after the next schedule time
• The sooner that the stolen devices can be moved into this profile the better chance you have of the jobs catching the device
• Time is of the essence here!

CentraTrack

CentraTrack puts CentraStage into ‘Stealth Mode’ by performing the following actions:

• Removing the CentraStage System Tray icon
• Removing CentraStage from Add/Remove Programs
• Making all CentraStage folders protected operating system files (i.e. SuperHidden)
• Deleting the uninstall file from CentraStage installation folder
• Removing CentraStage shortcuts from the start menu
• Reporting back external IP Address and performing a TRACEROUTE command to try and get ISP information

CentraStage will continue to function in the background as usual but not be easily visible to the thief. The process is irreversible so USE WITH CAUTION!

The idea is that the hapless thief will possibly not be bright enough to keep the stolen device away from the internet and if they do then CentraStage can kick in and make itself as invisible as possible while still maintaining full functionality. The script will then return the external IP address of the device in an attempt to locate its whereabouts. The TRACEROUTE command will often return the ISP within the first couple of hops. This information can possibly be passed to the police in order to try to recover the device or at least point the finger in the direction of the thief’s whereabouts.

CentraTrash

Scours all drives on the target device for the supplied file extensions and deletes them using the Pseudorandom Overwrite method. This will defeat all software recovery programs and possibly microscopic forensic analysis also. CAUTION: THIS COMPONENT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND ANY FILES DELETED WILL BE UNRECOVERABLE BY ANY MEANS!

The idea behind this component is that by providing a series of file extensions to be destroyed that any potentially sensitive information on the device can be removed. This is particularly relevant in the government/education sector where leaked information could be damaging.