Open source anti-theft solution Prey reveals premium, corporate plans

Chilean startup Fork made some announcements today at Amsterdam regarding their anti-theft software Prey. After taking the stage, CEO Tomás Pollak spoke about the project and its progress -- from beerware to the millionth download --, and their plans to take it to the next level.

Prey has been gathering increasing attention on the web, as it's the only free & open source anti-theft project in active development (similar Adeona project was shut down due to technical issues). In almost a year they've reached a million downloads and as the userbase has grown, the team has started to receive requests from users to allow adding more than three devices under their accounts, specially from institutions such as schools and universities.

Freemium version delivered
Users will be able to pay a monthly subscription which will allow them to track additional devices under their accounts. These premium accounts will include extended features like remote file backup and encryption for reports.

File backups, commando-style
When a laptop is stolen important data goes away with the PC. Prey's upcoming backup system has been crafted to work on extreme conditions, such as flaky Internet connections that may shut down in any minute (remember you're always at the mercy that the thief disconnects, shuts down the PC or the battery simply runs out). This will give users a good chance of recovering the most important stuff from their PC's.

Wiper module to blow passwords away
A new module was announced today, which allows one-time removal of the passwords, cookies and sensitive information for all user accounts on the PC. They call it "wiper" and it should be available next week or two.

New mobile platforms to come out
Android is currently the only mobile platform supported by Prey, but this should change in the near future when Fork rolls out clients for BlackBerry and Symbian devices. 

Real-time monitoring, for real
Corporate accounts will include a new feature called Networks. Devices can be grouped together according to the networks they're hooked onto, so that administrators can be aware whenever a PC switches to a different one. This visualization layer runs in real-time by using HTML5 Websockets, meaning you can actually see when each device sends its heartbeat.