On Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel’s executive vice president and general manager of the mobility group, Dadi Perlmutter, gave a quick intro to new technology Intel is rolling out this year, which promises the ability to track, disable, and, if needed, scramble the information contained on a stolen laptop.
Intel gets in-depth with Anti-Theft tech. (IMG:Intel)
“With the increase in the popularity of notebooks, a new problem [increased in size],” Perlmutter said during his keynote address at IDF. The problem is notebook theft, and as he explained: “It is one thing to lose some that ranges from [several hundred to a few thousand dollars], but the most precious thing that you have in your stolen notebook is the data.”
Partnering with Lenovo, the new anti-theft technology addresses the risk of data on the move, sensitive data that is either inadvertently or intentionally taken out of the office on the road.
Compliance issues such as HIPAA, require data be protected, and if a laptop that contains sensitive medical data is stolen or lost, for example, then there are serious issues to consider, least of which is the cost of the asset.
During Perlmutter’s talk, a video interview with Samuel Dusi, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing at Lenovo, explained how Lenovo, one of the largest notebook manufactures in the world and the go-to company for IT, is teaming up with Intel to protect the data.
“[Theft] is a costly IT expense if a system should be lost or stolen or its data compromised,” Dusi explained.
The rest of the video shown during this portion of Perlmutter’s talk introed what the AT (Anti-Theft) technology aims to accomplish.
Of the goals for Intel’s AT, Perlmutter explained that the first is prevention; or preventing those with malicious intent from using the stolen data. The second is detection; detecting the fact that the notebook is missing or perhaps stolen, and detecting who it was that stole it. Finally, after recovery, returning the notebook to a usable state.
The AT works in various parts, once the notebook is noticed stolen (as it happened on stage during the talk) IT can manage the asset from a central management application. This allows IT to issue a “kill pill,” which will encrypt or otherwise scramble the data on the notebook.
In addition, the central management will allow IT to use GPS to track the device (in case it wasn’t stolen, simply left somewhere), and if needed, use the internal camera to take a photo should someone be using it at the time (the photo can also help with location if GPS is sketchy).
Once returned, the asset can be unscrambled from the same central management, and all is well. There is a catch however, which was not mentioned during this portion of the talk: the notebook – lost or stolen – needs to be online for any of this to work.
Vendors are lining up to use the new Intel tech, even if this type of recovery and tracking has been around for a while. McAfee yesterday announced its efforts to extend its security products to Intel-based laptops and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
McAfee said it will provide integrated data encryption for laptops and integrated mobile content security for MIDs, each based on the Intel Atom processor Z5XX series and Moblin-based software.
Adding to that, McAfee announced plans to integrate its security encryption with Intel's Anti-Theft Technology and Active Management Technology to protect the data on a laptop in the event that it is stolen and an unauthorized user tries to access it.
"McAfee provides enterprise-class, powerful encryption and strong access control technologies that seamlessly integrate with existing systems," said Gerhard Watzinger, senior vice president and general manager of McAfee's Data Protection Business Unit. "By teaming with Intel to provide encryption for laptops we are extending protection to customers anywhere anytime."
Another announcement yesterday, confirmed Lenovo as one of the first to ship Intel’s AT Technology in an effort to help customers address the demand for notebook security.
The new versions of Lenovo’s ThinkPad PCs, scheduled for release later this year, will include built-in security capabilities based on Intel’s AT Technology, the company said.
TJzizAug 22nd, 2008 - 00:23:20
I think this is cool. There used to be a security company that had software which did something similar-it would lock the laptop down if a non-approved IP address was being used. Lets face it, a computer that isn't going to be used to go online is like stealing a car and not driving it-so yes, the theif has to go online for it to work-but that could work just fine.
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