We’re still celebrating the world didn’t end last year, and to show you how happy we are, here’s our first 2013 present for you: Prey for Android now takes pictures of whoever steals your device. From now on, it doesn’t matter anymore if your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone gets stolen—as long as there’s a built-in camera on your device, you’ll see the bad guys’ faces.

But that’s not all the news! Prey for Android got much more handsome, it also features an Uninstallation Lock, and now gathers hardware information to help you identify your lost device in case it gets found. Some bugs were also fixed.

(More…)

A few days ago we pushed version 0.5.9, which is a big jump from good-old 0.5.3. While this new client includes a ton of new things, the most important being the fix for the geolocation issue (aka. “no map on reports”), plus duplicate device detection, full SSL support with certificate verification, support for OS X’s network auto-connect, a better configurator for Linux and improved offline actions. Whew!

You can find and download the new client from our downloads section. For those of you interested in the small print, here’s the full changelog.

(More…)

It’s been a while since we last updated our Android client so it was time to put our elves — I mean, our team — back into Android action. We recently pushed a big juicy update that includes a complete revamp of the UI, some security enhancements, and yes, Camouflage Mode.

Right now you have two options: you take the blue pill, and head on to Google Play and install or update Prey on your phone or tablet. You take the red pill, you stay on our blog and keep reading, and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

(More…)

Months ago, when we began drawing sketches, trying to imagine what the iPhone client for Prey would look like, well it sure looked easy-peasy. It really did. But when we actually put our hands into it, we bumped into a number of things we had to sort out to make Prey work the way we wanted to, and of course, without breaking any of Apple’s rules. So it took longer than expected but the work is now done, and the wait finally over.

Prey is now available for iPhones and iPads at the App Store. Open source, for free, tested and ready to kick some burglar butt. Check it out.

(More…)

Good news Ubuntu users! If you already upgraded to Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) then you’ll be able to install Prey directly from Ubuntu’s official package repositories. We’ve been working side by side with the Debian devs so now you’ll be able to find Prey in Ubuntu’s Software Center or get it by opening up a terminal and typing the famous one-liner:

$ sudo apt-get install prey

The package is listed on Ubuntu’s universe repository so be sure to enable it through Synaptic it (Settings > Repositories > check Community-maintained Open Source software) if you want to use it.

Now, there’s a few differences between the official Prey version and the one bundled in Debian and Ubuntu. Keep on reading!

(More…)

Yup, it’s here.

It took as a bit longer than expected but the iOS client is ready to run in the wild, and we want you to help us try it out. If you have an iPhone running iOS version 4 or above, you can be one of the first to see Prey running on Apple’s platform. You’ll also get a Personal Pro account for a whole year and we’ll only ask that you fill in a form a week or two after installing the app.

Want to give it a shot? Then send us a Direct Message through Twitter with your registered email address (the one associated to your Control Panel account). If you get a DM back from us then it means you were one of the selected few who made it!

Update: Registration is now closed. Thanks everyone who signed up!

0.5.2 is out! A while ago we pushed this release update which includes a couple of security enhancements, lots of code cleanups and a small fix for On-Demand mode, as some people were having trouble switching back to On-Interval after going to stand-by mode. Lets take a deeper look at the changelog:

• Response encryption: Prey now supports 128 bit AES decryption for response bodies, which means that all data sent by the Control Panel will be encrypted with a salted secret key, rending theoretical man-in-the-middle attacks impossible. We’ll be deploying this gradually during the next days!
• We also added a check to prevent malitious code execution through config values in the response XML. (Issue #85)
• Better way of knowing if On-Demand is still active or not, using timestamps from the keepalive pings sent by the server. This should fix the issue that prevented some users from switching back to Interval mode.
• Lots of code cleanups, removed duplicate or unused stuff. We’re also switching backticks for $() calls, which is much easier to read.
• Small improvements to the auto update process.
• Initial support for Prey to be run as a non-root user. On Ubuntu we were able to run as a third user with some sudo permissions. Once we get it working on Mac we’ll switch over and not run Prey as root any more (yes, we heard you guys).
• Support for SMTP servers which don’t require authentication. Simply leave the SMTP user/pass fields blank and you’re set. Passwords with spaces should also work.
• Added a simple SMTP user/pass verification routing in check mode (Standalone users).

That’s about it! For the full commit list check out the comparison view on Github. As always, any questions or comments are welcome.

Happy hunting!

Update: 0.5.1 was just pushed. Fixed an issue regarding password on Standalone mode and checks for On Demand mode.

Good news for all Prey users. Version 0.5 is available for download and ready to roll. Codenamed “Cloud Strife”, 0.5′s changes include:

• On Demand support for laptops/desktops (via a secure, persistent TCP connection) and Androids (via Google’s Cloud To Device messaging system).
• Updated Lock for Mac to make sure it triggers deactivation of module on Control Panel when successful password is entered.
• Offline actions support: You can now force the actions to be kept running even if the device goes offline.
• CronService for Windows optimizations and fixes (read note at the bottom!).
• Android: Lock module support for 2.2+ Androids. You need to grant permissions on your phone after updating, otherwise it won’t work.
• Android: can now reassign current SIM as the valid one, so you don’t need to disable the SIM lock function to stop getting alert messages when switching SIMs.
• Windows Lock binary rewritten in C#. Better focus management. Task Manager disabling works as it should in XP and Vista/7 as well. As we’re not bundling WinLock.dll any more, there shouldn’t be any more false positives.
• Mac Geo Module: support for weird chars like slashes.
• Mac & Windows screenshot grab in JPG which is lighter than PNG. Reports should get faster to destination now.
• New strategy for capturing webcam shots in Linux (waaay better image quality and lightness). Thanks to everyone who helped on this.
• Linux: Change the delay to give wifi time to work when using autoconnect (thanks Drew!)
• Linux: When using autoconnect mode in the config, Prey will use the network with the strongest signal available (again, thanks Drew!)
• Fixed file sending in SCP mode (screenshot, picture). (#76)
• Mac installer fixes. You shouldn’t get any more “Unverified” states anymore.
• Removed rubbish on Mac/Linux log files.
• Linux: Fixed Wifi device getting (using iwconfig now).
• Linux: Lock module should work on distros with Python 3 installed.

And a couple of other smaller fixes too.

Important: On Windows, running Prey as a system service –rather than at user-level — should not only be the default option but the way of running Prey on Windows, so we’re deprecating it on next release. If you’re still running at user level we strongly encourage you to switch modes. You don’t have to if you don’t want, but Prey will refuse to auto update until you do. :)

That’s it. Hope you enjoy 0.5 and, as always, happy hunting!

We just pushed version 0.4.4 which fixes some things and also makes it even tougher than before.

• In Windows, the uninstaller will ask either for the user’s registration password or API key before proceeding. This is a request we received in the early days, so we’re glad to finally deliver as requested. On a sidenote, remember you can choose to not generate Start Menu entries for Prey during installation.
• Lots of path fixes in all OSs. In Windows there shouldn’t be any more problems running Prey from a path containing spaces (e.g. C:\Program Files).
• Fixes for Geo in Linux for Access Points with weird chars. Also, the module now supports all output formats from iwconfig.
• Secure module doesn’t delete browsers’ data, it simply appends .backup so you won’t lose any information if you activate the module by mistake.
• Interface improvements for Configurator in Linux. Thanks Delwin for all the code!
• Fixes for Windows Service mode 64 bit Windows, which prevented some modules from working correctly (such as alert).
• No more WScript for Alert’s message box in Windows. We dumped it for a much stronger C version.
• Prey Lock in Windows and Linux has been greatly improved. Always on top, full screen support and Alt-Tab protection, among other things.
• When unlocking with the right password, the Lock module will be automatically deactivated on the Control Panel.
• System module enhancements. RAM check in 2000/XP has been fixed. Also, we now grab Motherboard information in PCs (Windows and Linux), as they contain a different set of Serial Numbers/Versions than the core system’s info.
• Better char escaping logic for standalone emails. Thanks Tom Wood for this one!

That’s all guys. For the whole list of commits click here. Happy hunting!

A while ago we pushed a new release that addresses some issues and also makes Prey a bit tougher.

• Screenshot grabber in Windows was replaced by preyshot.exe, a lighter version which is based on this code.
• The System Service in Windows now actually runs as the SYSTEM user, and calls programs as the logged in user only when needed (such as for taking the screenshot).
• Patching logic for auto-updates is now more fail-safe. Hopefully this will fix the issues we’ve been seeing on the mailing list. Another important change is that auto-update only will work if the device is not marked as missing.
• New Ifconfig.exe binary for Windows, which allows getting always the right Private and Gateway IP addresses, either if your Windows version is in english or not.
• Creating a new account through the Linux configurator should have problems dealing with strange characters in the password.

You can check the full list of commits over here.

That’s all. Happy hunting!