and or in stored programming instructions all of the methods and tasks described herein excluding those identified as performed by a human may be performed and fully automated by a computer system the computer system may in some cases include multiple distinct computers or computing devices e g physical servers workstations storage arrays etc that communicate and interoperate over a network to perform the described functions each such computing device typically includes a processor or multiple processors that executes program instructions or modules stored in a memory or other computer readable storage medium where the system includes multiple computing devices these devices may but need not be co located the results of the disclosed methods and tasks may be persistently stored by transforming physical storage devices such as solid state memory chips and or magnetic disks into a different state a diagram of a preferred embodiment of the jurisdiction based stolen device monitoring system is shown by way of example in fig1 the system generally comprises a monitoring centre 70 connected via data communication link 52 and the internet 50 to one or more remote terminals 5 6 and 56 other remote terminals may be connected via data communication links and the internet to the monitoring centre 70 the monitoring centre comprises a server 67 in turn comprising components usually found in a server such as a processor 61 and electronic memory 63 64 the electronic memory 63 carrying computer readable instructions 66 that can be acted upon by the processor 61.