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by: MASQUERAIDPosted on 2004-07-10 at 08:32:35ID: 11519334
Pretty unlikely I'm afraid.
There are some tracking systems that have been developed but they require hardware (rather than software) to be installed before the machine is taken. Chances are the harddrive will have been wiped so any identifying software will have been lost but your son should ensure that any internet accounts have their passwords changed to prevent access from "remembered" passwords in Windows. Also their email account will almost certainly be vulnerable and they should contect their ISP to change this too. ISPs in theory could track the phone number used to dial into their account if anyone was foolish enough to do this with a stolen PC but you would have difficulty wringing this information out of them
Frustrating as it is I think you have to accept it has gone. Your next step should be damage limitation if there is any exploitable information on it, especially if there are credit card or other details stored.