Undercover 6

Anyone who nicks Ian’s Mac might get more than they bargained for

I’ve never used Orbicule’s Undercover 6. Not as it was intended, anyway. But I still love it. A contradiction? No, but it’s certainly a paradox. Undercover runs in the background on your Mac, helping you to recover it if stolen. I’ve never used it because, I’ve never had my Macs pinched, but I’m glad it’s there.

The service is easy to use. Download a lightweight app, open an account at undercoverhq.com and register your Mac(s) – you can buy a one-device or five-Mac licence. If it’s stolen, log on to Undercover HQ and report it. Next time it’s taken online, Undercover captures data that could locate it and catch the thieves. Location information and the Mac’s internal and external IP addresses are saved, helping police find out where it is. Keystrokes are logged and screenshots captured to record whatever it is the thief is doing on your Mac, and it even takes photos through the webcam. If all else fails, switch to Plan B, which simulates a hardware failure.

Undercover Watch starts recording information when your Mac is used outside your regular network, or when someone logs into a dummy account set up for the purpose. When we reviewed Undercover 6 in Issue 274, we criticised this feature as being inflexible, but now you can register multiple networks as being ‘safe’, and set up Macs independently if you have more than one registered to the same Undercover account. Orbicule Undercover 6 is well worth the £19 for a single Mac or £69 for a five-Mac licence. Check it out at orbicule.com.