My Computer Was Stolen, Need Help From Techies (And People Familiar With Identity Theft)

[Hubbs]

So my laptop was stolen, and it's not password protected, not even after rebooting. (I know, I know. :doh: Never again.) The charger was taken as well (not that it would be hard to figure out where to get another one given that my computer is a Macbook Pro), so whoever has my computer has potentially unlimited access to my cookies, my passwords, all sorts of my personal information for an unlimited amount of time, or at least until the thing breaks and needs to be fixed, because the people at the Apple store think they'll be able to get the laptop's serial number and add it to their stolen list, which (thankfully) allows them to hold onto all equipment on the list once it's brought in until the rightful owner can be sorted out.

Anyway, I need help from people much more technologically savvy than myself. I've been going around changing my passwords on all of my important sites (yes, the ES password will be changed after I post this ), but will that require the person who has my laptop to log in again to have access to my accounts, or will my "keep me logged in" cookies override that? If so, is there anything I can do to safeguard my accounts? Beyond that, are there any super-geeky ways I might be able to somehow track someone who's using my computer? I never signed up for iCloud, so that method is out according to the Apple store folks. Is there any other way?

Also, this obviously makes me extremely vulnerable to identity theft, so I need to know the best ways to combat that. Does Lifelock live up to its advertising? Are there better ways to go about protecting myself? How fast can they be implemented, given that I can probably complete the process of signing up with Lifelock by noon tomorrow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I went through a period of a few days when I thought my car was stolen, and this is so much worse. Insurance will replace a car, and losing your car doesn't allow some guy to potentially move all of your money out of your bank account and parade around the Internet gaining access to all of the information that would otherwise be limited to you. Put password locks on your computers, people.

EDIT: Just checked on my account settings for the first time in a couple of years to discovered my email is set on an account that no longer exists, but changing my setting involves sending a confirmation email to the existing listed email account... which I can't receive. So if any mod sees this, I'd be very grateful for a way around this obstacle.

[Chump Bailey]

Can't help you with the tech stuff, but I would suggest placing an alert in your credit file with all 3 credit bureau's immediately. I'm not a huge fan of the ID theft services because basically they're charging you to monitor your credit file, which is something you can do by yourself for free. Legally, I don't think they can be much more proactive than that.

[techboy]

Don't use Lifelock. As far as I can tell, they charge you $165 a year to put a fraud alert on all three credit bureaus, which you can do yourself. Also, there are some rather shady elements involving the company itself.

Here's something about credit freeze and thaw (*EDIT*- This is for people that just want more security. You can put a fraud alert with each credit agency for free if you are in a situation such as yours).

And here's something about Lifelock settling a claim with 35 states.

I don't think you need to worry about the "autologin" cookies if you change your passwords, though. I think they just autoenter it.

[chipwhich]

You don't use icloud for your mac so you can locate and do a remote wipe?

If you change your password, you wont be kept logged in by cookies.