Phone Home Robot Pro (Phorp) is a free cross-platform application for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX that runs silently on your desktop computer or laptop, and periodically “phones home” to a server to check if it has been stolen, and gets instructions on what to do if it has been. You can use your own web servers or ftp accounts as the home page for the program to contact tyou and for you to leave instructions for.

If a computer is stolen, you can upload security software and applications of your choice which would then get executed on the stolen PC. Some helper security programs that can be remotely installed to aid you in tracking your stolen computer could be:

+ Keyloggers
+ Hidden activity mointors / screenshot mailers
+ Hidden Remote Control Apps
+ File Wipers/Eraser

You may want to install a keylogger to see what the thief is doing, a remote connection software such as VNC to connect to the computer or a file eraser to securely wipe confidential information from the PC.

Every effort has been made to make it impossibile for someone else to trick your computer to executing malicious code. The program does not accept connections from other pcs, and only connects to the url you specify.

Unfortunately, Phorp is a command-line based utility. A complete walkthrough and intructions to configure the program can be found here.