What Will Happen If Your Laptop Gets Stolen? Boston Entrepreneur to Provide High Tech answers at COMDEX 2000

Contact:
Donna Shervanian
John Kay Inc., for zTrace
Ph: 781-329-5041
donna@zTrace.com

For Immediate Release, October 17, 2000, Boston, MA: No laptop user is immune from theft. Not even the CEO of a multi-national, multi-billion dollar communications conglomerate like Qualcomm. But no matter the size of your company, the loss of a laptop or any PC, can mean catastrophe.

Enter zTrace            

"We are the virtual 'Lo-Jack' for laptops," says zTraces President Alexander Kesler. "Without us, you have a 2% chance of ever having your computer or your data returned." According to Newsweek, one out of 14 laptop computers is stolen within the first year after its purchase. "And it is so easy to re-sell for the thief, people pay 70 cents on a dollar for used laptops," says Kesler. The worst part is that all of the data is gone too, and if the last backup was done a month ago, it will also mean the loss of a months worth of work and valuable data like email correspondence.

zTrace will identify the location of a stolen computer through the Internet by utilizing its patent-pending technology. If your laptop or PC is stolen, as soon as the theft is reported to zTrace, the alert is activated. The first time your laptop's "new owner" tries to access the web, the SOS function will report the location of the computer to the zTrace command center. Law enforcement is notified and steps in to make the recovery. "We compare that to the America's Most Wanted of Computers, " Kesler says.

"We have law enforcement staff working with zTrace. We actually make the recovery for you," says Kesler. Also, the software is hidden on the hard drive so that there is no files, directories, sounds or icons that are associated with zTrace. User cannot detect that the computer is being protected and traced. "So we maintain the element of surprise on the thief or the person in possession of the stolen property, making recovery easier," says Kesler.

But more often than not, it isn't the value of the computer that leaves victims reeling, it is the loss of data. Ten new features are under development for zTrace, to be released by early 2001. One of them is inBackup, the system that allows zTraces customers to automatically backup their files onto the off-site secure server, so that even if the computer does get stolen, the data is not lost. Other features will allow our customers to control the stolen computer after the theft occurred, they will be able to remotely delete the files on their own computer, even disable it altogether--so you don't have to worry about your data falling into "enemy hands," adds Kesler.

But is zTrace software able to figure out where the computer is located on a daily basis, as a measure of employee control?. "No way! zTrace's utmost concern is the privacy" says Kesler. zTrace software is engineered in a way that only allows to determine the location of the computer after the owner submitted theft report and the fact of theft was verified. Only after this double verification, location capabilities of zTrace come to work. A third party has verified our software and it is completely secure and respectful towards our customer's privacy. "We even go a step further, zTrace servers do not hold any information in regards to our customers' Internet connections at all," says Kesler.

Kesler will demonstrate zTrace at COMDEX 2000, at Booth #SC15. Details available at www.zTrace.com