An alternative approach to identifying stolen network clients using DHCP /

Computer theft is a mounting problem despite prevention strategies already in place. The marketplace currently offers post-theft solutions but most depend on software in place on the stolen item. This is a critical vulnerability as it places the theft recovery technology in the hands of the thief.This thesis is an investigation into the feasibility of abandoning this limitation by moving the theft recovery technology into the server, beyond the hands of the thief.The contents are divided into two complimentary sections. The first is the creation of a theft detecting DHCP server with acceptable performance levels for production environments. The second involves investigation into the ramifications of widespread adoption of such a server by exploring the countermeasures open to an adversary. Questions of difficulty and reliability of such techniques are explored, in both hardware and software. Also discussed is the possibly of countering such countermeasures