Patent ID: 8881309

Claim:
A method for identifying and locating a portable storage device that is lost to its owner and that is connected to a host system, the method comprising: sending, by the portable storage device to a remote service via the host system, identification information that identifies the portable storage device, where the portable storage device, the host system, and the remote service are separate and distinct from each other; receiving, by the portable storage device from the remote service via the host system in response to the sending, status information; determining, by the portable storage device based on the received status information, that the portable storage device is lost to its owner; and executing, in response to the determining, a recovery plan that includes the portable storage device communicating with the remote service via the host system over a secure tunneling channel provided by the host system based, the provided secure tunneling channel based on an application provided to the host system by the remote service, and where the portable storage device is configured for being remotely controlled by the remote service via the host system over the provided secure tunneling channel.