I will just point out the (to-me) obvious fact that, in effect, the thieves have been stealing from kids, at least where the boards were made available for kids to play with and program (my situation). When it comes to crimes against humanity, if you ask any law enforcement officer for their list of the worst crimes that ne'er-do-wells can commit, stealing from kids is way up there, just below the most reprehensible violent felonies. To some citizens, it's the principle that's important, but, for those so wealthy that they're lighting fancy Cuban cigars with the paper money equivalent of the true cost of obtaining a Pi (including months of waiting, even now), I will be more than happy to accept your donations of Pi boards, or the full equivalent in funds to acquire them, for our Pi for the Pupils Project.
I think it's worthwhile to pull Pi security (which I'm calling SecuriPi) out as a separate topic since it was first noted in my lessons-learned from our Silicon Valley Jam last weekend, and others have responded that they also know of thefts. Some have posted comments about, and links to, potential means for automatically sensing when a Pi board has been disconnected from a LAN at an event. I would like to pursue that topic here, if for no other reason than the educational opportunity as a project into which kids themselves can sink their teeth. I'm not so much interested in just being showered with unproven ideas, URLs, brain-farts, and other whims of fancy, I'm looking for A Few Good Men, Women, and Children who also think that stealing from kids is a hanging offense (and I would be ecstatic to have a well-provisioned army show up), even if the hanging just means a convicted perp being suspended by their thumbs via Cat-5 cable.
A search of the forums didn't turn up anything definitive on this topic, so, we can start with the fact that every Pi has some unique characteristics, and not just a MAC address for its Ethernet port (which can be spoofed from the network perspective, as has been noted elsewhere). I don't know whether the details of this uniqueness feature and precisely where/when it's accessed are supposed to be public knowledge, so, I will wait for the Foundation folks to weigh in on whether that should be discussed here in the forums or back-channel.
As anyone who's dealt with computing security for more than five seconds knows, the two primary aspects are physical security and information security. SecuriPi will deal with the intersection of those two aspects specifically as they relate to keeping Pi boards from growing appendages and wandering off with the assistance of a bipedal cockroach. While I have no problem building on the successful work of others, I'm not interested in fixing someone else's Swiss cheese version of a Really Bad Idea. So, if there are techniques that have been accepted by organizations with some real credibility, they're candidates, even if they might need to be adapted to the unique characteristics of the Pi (which I already know can be tricky and inherently risky in introducing vulnerabilities). Ultimately, it seems like producing something that can be buried in the kernels of all releases would be a reasonable goal, even if it means earlier releases lack SecuriPi features. I believe we can detect when a Pi running an earlier release is connected to a LAN so that it can at least be updated with some level of SecuriPi and thereby receive some protection.
If the mods want to establish a SecuriPi forum, that would be appreciated, as we can use this thread as an announcement touchstone to keep the Pi Community updated on progress, and pointers to threads about specific aspects for those with expertise/interest in them. If we need to establish a back-channel means of coordination between known people for issues that are sensitive to Broadcom or the Foundation, but, would be helpful to our goals, I'm sure they will let us know via PM, e-mail, etc.
Let's wait to discuss specifics until we know what the Foundation thinks and we see what kind of talent quorum is willing to actually roll up their sleeves and contribute - kibitzers are welcome to watch, but, don't criticize anything unless you have a proven solution appropriate to the Pi in-hand. That's not to say we don't welcome input - that would be ridiculously arrogant and stupid - just don't flame someone else's work unless you have something demonstrably better that actually works. Please save the hand-waving for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics
We thank you for your support and now return you to your life, already in progress ... that is all ...
).
I did some searching and found 
Raspi seems the antithesis of Big Brother.
