LogMeIn, a remote access and support services provider, this week said it plans to offer a service that gives laptop owners a way to mitigate the disaster of a lost or stolen machine.

LogMeIn's Instant Shredding service, due out early next year, enables users to have their data encrypted or deleted if their notebook PC is stolen or lost, said Michael Simon, CEO of the Woburn, Mass.-based vendor. Users of LogMeIn's remote backup service, which provides a continuous remote mirror of hard-drive data, also can choose to erase all traces of data from stolen laptop hard drives, he added.

LogMeIn's technology includes a "homing beacon" that's installed on the computer and allows a stolen laptop to be identified and tracked as it moves around the Internet, Simon said. That feature recently was used by police in Amarillo, Texas, to recover a stolen laptop, he added.

The Instant Shredding service uses the homing beacon to identify when a stolen notebook logs on, and then it triggers remote encryption or deletion of data. Users, too, can choose to have data automatically deleted if a PC hasn't been online for a certain period of time, Simon said.

Solution providers said the shredding service complements LogMeIn's other remote access offerings.

"What's really unique is that they've taken their core product, remote access, and made several different applications for users, including being able to trigger remote shredding," said Keith Schiehl, president of Rent-A-Geek Computer Services, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

Previously known as 3am Labs, LogMeIn has about 3 million users and does about 40 percent of its business through channel partners, according to Simon.

LogMeIn hasn't yet set pricing for the shredding service, but its other products typically cost $4.95 to $13 per month.