MICRO-ID... RECOVERS STOLEN COMPUTERS
Written By Leo Christensen

Personal computers............Over 50 million have been sold in the United
states and Canada, and thousands are stolen every year. They are a thief's
dream and a law enforcement nightmare.

About the size and weight of a VCR, usually worth thousands of dollars,
they are easy to steal, a breeze to fence and almost impossible to
identify. Serial number stickers peel off in seconds. Internal modems,
disk drives, memory, and other electronic add-ons are changed and altered
with a few twists of a screwdriver. Even an amateur can reconfigure
today's personal computers and change their identity in just a few
minutes. To make matters worse computer thefts are currently on the rise
and the new smaller notebook computers are easily stolen and concealed
from view.

Pretty bleak picture.....But wait - aren't these machines pretty "smart?"
What if you could somehow access the "artificial intelligence" of the
computer to identify itself and its rightful owner? What if you could have
the computer "testify" as to how its valuable components were pieced out?

And what if police, BBS operators, and shareware distributors could offer
this as a public service to owners of personal computers? What if
corporate and university computer owners could automate the identification
process?

If all this were true, then law enforcement authorities would find it much
easier to retrieve stolen computer gear for local businesses, large
corporations, universities and John Q. Public. "High Tech" thieves and
fences would also be much more wary about such tricky items and law
enforcement agencies could truly provide a valuable service regarding high
technology crime prevention. Can you imagine how such a modern approach to
crime prevention could tie into community policing efforts and law
enforcement public relations. What better way would there be for a local
law enforcement agency to assist small businesses or citizens who own
computers?

Fortunately we don't have to wait. Just such a program is already in place
in many cities in the United states and Canada and copies of the program
can be obtained by the public for little or no charge. MICRO LAW SOFTWARE,
INC. has created a program called MICRO-ID, which is already at work and
available to law enforcement agencies, BBS operators and shareware
distributors for such a purpose. For under $250 most local law enforcement
agencies can implement a high technology crime prevention program using
MICRO-ID in their jurisdictions, and corporations and universities can
obtain site licenses for under $500. The corporate and university versions
automate the ownership marking process of a large number of computers . A
'shareware' version of the program is made available to the public through
BBS operators and software 'shareware' distributors by MICRO LAW SOFTWARE,
INC. to supplement distribution of MICRO-ID by law enforcement agencies.
The shareware version is tailored for use by individuals and each program
diskette can be used only once to minimize the possibility of the
transmission of computer virus via shared diskettes.

A feature on KPTV News and THE OREGONIAN Newspaper in Portland, Oregon and
an article by John Dvorak in PC MAGAZINE pointed out that MICRO-ID, is
drawing police, educators, business owners, and large corporations
together to safeguard against hi-tech theft and in-house pilferage.
Computer theft is growing and MICRO-ID is designed to stop it. Several
large corporations are already reaping the benefits from the program and a
newly released 'shareware' version of the program is helping supplement
law enforcement efforts in distributing the program to the public.

It works this way: Police distribute MICRO-ID diskettes to computer owners
or the program is obtained from a BBS or computer software shareware
distributor. The owner then loads the program, which accesses the computer
and etches the original owner's identification and a listing of attached
components deep in the heart of the computer's hard disk drive. The
program asks for the name, address and date of birth of the proper owner.
It "looks around" the inside of the system for peripheral add-ons (like
CPU, serial ports, parallel ports, math-coprocessors, DOS Version, and
Video Cards), and hides all this information in several locations. This
takes only seconds.

Along with MICRO-ID comes is a companion program for police called
COP-ONLY. Any computer encoded with MICRO-ID will respond instantly to
COP-ONLY and reveal the name of the original owner, date of marking,
serial number, owners telephone number and the configuration of the
hardware at the time it was marked. COP-ONLY is made available to any
official law enforcement agency which has responsibility for the recovery
of stolen property. The program is provided free of charge and only a
small handling and customization charge is requested in the amount, i. e.
$7.00.

Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Tom Seipert, who's original idea gave birth
to MICRO-ID, gave this hypothetical scenario of how the program a might
work: "Perhaps a thief is trying to fence a stolen computer through a pawn
shop or the local police may have linked him to it for some other reason.
The 'crook' claims that the computer has belonged to him for years, he has
lost the receipt, and it has never been modified or altered. He can offer
no explanation as to why the computer has no serial number. When the
police use COP-ONLY, the screen reveals 'the true story'... the computer
was marked by the rightful owner only a few months before. The MICRO-ID
information, in the hands of the police, gives the crook ample ammunition
to bury himself."

"Essentially, the object of the theft becomes the star witness," says
Seipert. "The machine is almost screaming that it's been stolen, with all
the information about itself and who it belongs to! It's better than the
license on a lost dog. Unlike the physical marking of social security
numbers or drivers license numbers, MICRO-ID information is invisible
without COP-ONLY." since only law enforcement officers have access to this
password protected program, potential high technology thieves are at a
real loss. This is one case where the COPS have the edge over the crooks.

Would reformatting a hard drive wipe away the data? "It is doubtful and
depends on the type of hard disk drive involved," Seipert explained. "In a
few of the older computers all or some of the information may be removed
with much effort, but on the newer, more valuable equipment, the MICRO-ID
information should still be there. It's an extremely sophisticated marking
process; you can't edit or even access it with any of the utility
programs," Seipert says. "It's encrypted several different ways and
written in different regions on the hard disk drive. The engineers at one
of the major computer manufacturers couldn't even get to the first
level."

Seipert explained that even if a hard drive were removed and installed in
another computer, the incriminating information would be carried right
along. "We would know the brand and serial number of the machine it came
from, the original DOS on that machine, the number of parallel and serial
ports," he said. "with this information, cooberation would be easy."

Seipert said that while MICRO ID is an excellent deterrent to "hi-tech
theft", it excels even further as a public relations tool for police
departments. "Traditionally, police departments have a hard time with
public relations. Cops are really trying to reach out to the community.
They visit the schools and discuss drug abuse; they engrave children'
bikes with identification, etc. However, meaningful public relations with
the business community is difficult at best. "MICRO-ID gives them the
opportunity to help their community by giving out the software free of
charge," Seipert said. It essentially becomes their program with their
advertising in it (the name of the agency is imbedded into the program).
COP-ONLY comes with the program and for obvious reasons COP-ONLY can not
be distributed to the public".

MICRO-ID provides a link for the police to interact with the communities in
ways they never could before; office products shows, booths at community
fairs, PC users groups, Chamber of Commerce meetings, and so on. These
disks can be distributed to individuals, small business owners, schools,
libraries, etc. In those areas where law enforcement agencies choose not
to distribute the program, copies can still be acquired from BBS operators
and shareware distributors located around the country. All law enforcement
agencies are interested in recovering stolen computers for computer owners
but understandably not all law enforcement agencies want to be involved in
software distribution.

"MICRO-LAW SOFTWARE, INC. provides public relations minded law enforcement
agencies with the disks ready to go, all licensed and imbedded with their
agency public relations information. They even help the officers by also
providing a demonstration computer slide show which can be used in the
promotion of high technology crime prevention, a press release, and even
print ready flyers for the public.," said Seipert.

Law enforcement, Campus, and Corporate inquiries, regarding MICRO-ID,
should be directed to:

Micro Law Software, Inc.
Post Office Box 88
Troutdale, Oregon 97060
(Telephone 503-666-6599).

Requests for the COP-ONLY program (used to read MICRO-ID markings) should
be accompanied with payment in the form of a check written in the amount
of $7.00 to cover customization, shipping and handling. Due to the high
level of security attached to COP-ONLY the payment and order must be made
on department letterhead and signed by the agency head for the location
involved.

In those cases where a given police department doesn't have the program yet
or another outlet can't be identified, MICRO LAW SOFTWARE, INC. will make
the 'shareware version' of the program available to the general public for
$7.00. However, it is suggested that shareware distributors and computer
bulletin boards (BBS's) be checked first. The program has been made
available to 100's of such distributors for 'low cost' or 'no cost'
distribution to the general public as a public service (see attached
list). A listing of Public BBS and Shareware distributors can be obtained
by sending a postage paid, pre-addressed envelope to the address listed
above . These sources are located throughout the nation.

 ============================================================
 From the 'New Product News' Electronic News Service provided
 via AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO BUSINESS PROD)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 OmniPage Pro is now used for converting all printed input! 
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
