Getting my stolen laptop returned after 3 years

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bbergero1181

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Hi guys and gals this is m first post here on the forums, i was just looking for some constructive advice on my situation.

Three years ago my laptop was stolen from my house it was about a year old and it had lojack on it. Recently it was just located in central america and will soon be returned to me. i don't want to use the laptop and won't be inputting my personal info or anything but i am a current college student in the IT/info sec field of study and was looking to use the laptop for some practice since i could care less if i break it or brick it etc.

what i would like to know is when i get it back what should i do first to diagnose it and look at it since im sure its been through all kinds of hell, without harming say my network etc... what would your first steps be in this situation? What tools should i use, again my primary function here is to learn hands on what i should be looking for/at and ave a bit of fun.

Thanks.
 
I would do a full install of Windows. You don't know what they put on there.

That's kinda the point he was getting at; he wants to look into to see if anything was done to it, since he mentioned he's going for IT/Info Security field.

I wouldn't put it on the network at all, honestly. Or if you do, put it on a separate subnet, or separate network entirely from your actual home network.
 
I would probably wipe the drive with DBAN before doing a clean install. It's probably overkill but since you have no idea what the laptop was used for you can never be too careful.
 
Like carnageX said, if you're going to look at it, just use best practices.... Keep it OFF of any network. If it has built in wireless, turn it off. It can't do any harm if it isn't on a network.
 
i remember finding some interesting linux distros focused on computer forensics. they usually talk about cloning the device and running it in a virtual environment. then load in a linux boot cd of your choice and perform analysis.
 
once i get it back in 3 weeks im going to run some anti virus/malware and other tools before i wipe the drive i want to see if i can find anything interesting. i might actually use it to practice taking apart a laptop.
 
Do a clean windows install, and try to back up any files that are still on there. Afterwards, it should be safe to use. If you can, I would also change your IP address because you don't know what they were doing with the laptop so your IP might have been logged by a website, and it may have been used for illegal activity.
 
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