Mobile device or computer theft recovery system and method

• US 20100115092A1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activetrak Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Westin Tech Incorporated
• Inventors: Westin, Kenneth Vernon
• Granted Patent: US 9,083,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A mobile device, e.g. portable computer, location tracking and data backup-and-wipe system and method enable a lost or stolen device to be recovered by reporting to its rightful owner and optionally to others its approximate location via triangulation and the use of location service providers. Social network members may be made aware automatically of the location of a reported lost or stolen device and can assist the rightful owner in recovering it based upon their identification of the user of the device, whether by the location coordinates or by viewing a photographic image taken by the computer. Alternatively, in governmental and/or institutional settings having privacy concerns, no photographic images are sent to a public website. Instead, they are sent to a proprietary employer server and maintained behind an institutional firewall.

Claims

1. A computer theft recovery system comprising:

a web-based status server configured to determine whether a mobile device has been reported lost or stolen and configured further to supply the mobile device with reported theft status, external internet protocol (IP) address, and a mobile device data wipe command; and

a mobile device subject to being lost or stolen, the mobile device including a mechanism for collecting available Wi-Fi, cellular tower or global positioning system (GPS) data representative of its current location and for forwarding the same to a geo-location service provider, wherein the mobile device further includes a mechanism for detecting its own network configuration data including an internal IP address and an internal host address, the device further including a mechanism for forwarding such data to a specified e-mail address.

2. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device further includes a mechanism form forwarding such data to a dedicated server.

3. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the detecting mechanism is configured further to capture a graphic image of a user of the mobile device, and wherein the mobile device further includes a mechanism for forwarding such data including the graphic image to a photo-sharing, social-marketing or other web-based service.

4. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device further includes a mechanism for repeatedly forwarding such data at defined time intervals.

5. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device further includes a data encryption mechanism, the system further comprising:

a storage server operatively coupled to the mobile device, the storage server configured to store encrypted data sent for back up from the mobile device prior to data wipe therefrom.

6. The theft recovery system of claim 5, wherein the storage server is a cloud server.

7. The theft recovery system of claim 5, wherein the mobile device is configured to prioritize data for selective data back-up prior to complete data wipe.

8. The theft recovery system of claim 5, wherein the status server and the storage server are decoupled from one another in such manner that the status server has no access to the back-up data within the storage server.

9. The theft recovery system of claim 5, wherein access to the storage server is password protected.

10. The theft recovery system of claim 9, wherein access to the storage server is double-password protected.

11. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the status server is proprietary.

12. The theft recovery system of claim 1, wherein the status server confirms with the mobile device owner whether a data wipe operation is authorized by the mobile device owner data wipe operation commences.

13. The theft recovery system of claim 12, wherein the status server confirms the authorized data wipe operation by sending a personal identification number (PIN) to the mobile device owner via e-mail, and wherein the mobile device owner confirms the data wipe operation by entering the PIN.

14. The mobile device theft system of claim 1, wherein a structured web services framework is used by the status server and the mobile device to provide security against hacking.

15. A mobile device theft recovery and data recovery method comprising:

providing a mobile device location tracking mechanism for substantially continuously determining and reporting a location of a mobile device, the tracking mechanism operating within the mobile device itself and including a ping operation coupled with one or more geo-located transponders that are geographically proximate the mobile device, the tracking mechanism further including a web-based coordinates-delivery mechanism;

providing a proprietary web-based server operatively coupled with the mobile device location tracking mechanism for storing and forwarding the coordinates from the coordinates-delivery mechanism to a registered owner of the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

providing a secure data recovery and wipe mechanism configured remotely to back-up selected data from the mobile device'"'"'s memory to a web-based server and thereafter to erase the data from the mobile device'"'"'s memory.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the data recovery and wipe mechanism is characterized by security steps including password or personal identification number (PIN) entry and verification and including data encryption.

18. The method of claim 16 which further comprises:

providing security for the mobile device that includes a check-in and track confirmation step, a data back-up confirmation step, and a personal identification number (PIN) confirmation step.

19. The method of claim 15 which further comprises:

providing only a registered owner of a mobile device information regarding location and tracking thereof unless the registered otherwise authorizes release of the information to others.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the data recovery and wipe mechanism resides in a separate server that is decoupled from the proprietary server to preserve privacy.