Research Triangle Park (NC) – You lost your notebook? You are worried about the data that might be exposed. No problem: Kill the notebook with a text message. Well, sort of.

As notebook theft is becoming an increasingly important topic in the IT world, we are now seeing innovative solution to protect users and corporations from data theft almost on a weekly basis. One of the most interesting and potentially most effective solutions was announced by Lenovo this morning.

A new feature that is expected to become available in Q1 2009 for select Thinkpad laptops will allow notebook owners to disable a notebook with a text message that is sent to a 3G-enabled system via a cellular network. The lockdown will happen immediately if a notebook is turned on or, when it is turned off, the next time the system signs on to a cellular network. To reactivate the disabled PC, a user needs to enter a pre-set passcode created during notebook startup.

Lenovo said that it worked with BIOS developer Phoenix to come up with this capability. The companies did not say what features of the notebook are exactly killed, but it seems that the hard drive of the system, which actually main contain critical data, remains active. In such a case, it would certainly be convenient to have a self-encrypting hard drive. Otherwise, Lenovo’s kill-feature may have very limited use – at least if data is the reason for a notebook theft.     
 
The feature will be integrated in “selected” notebooks free of charge. It will work wherever GSM and SMS services are supported, Lenovo said.

It's a start...

Nov 25, 2008 11:34     

...but sounds like the idea could use a little more work / functionality. Any move in the right direction is a good one though. Keep up the forward thinking.
Nick B. report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Options...

Nov 25, 2008 17:24     

It should allow to also put a command on HDD/SDD (well HDD/SDD would need to support this) to self-encrypt or self-randomize...
Q report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

One problem

Nov 25, 2008 17:51     

Can't the thief just take the hard drive out and read it with a PC? That's what I do with my stolen laptops. They need to have it explode instead.
Andy Trail report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +19

Sounds Brilliant

Nov 26, 2008 04:56     

Killing method should target the data, rather than the notebook; although I would have preferred these 2 to be tied down. First, the notebook will render useless even with the theft and secondly, data is secured.
Keith report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Remote Lockdown?

Nov 26, 2008 06:39     

Also included is a feature that will transmit all of your data to the local Chinese embassy.
Jack Meoff report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Encrypted filesystems

Nov 26, 2008 07:17     

How about just using an encrypted filesystem? (The exploding option sounds cool though.)
yodacallmesome report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Good idea but...

Nov 26, 2008 08:27     

Rather have GPS enabled so I could drive over and get it back. *Cracks knuckles*
anonymous report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Hahah

Nov 26, 2008 09:55     

Why bother, just fit a sony battery and the laptop will explode on its own destroying everything. And who's to say the bios cannot be flashed again?
Bob Metcalf report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Be proactive

Nov 26, 2008 09:58     

Full HD encryption is before the theft is a better solution IMHO. If the system is never turned on after the theft, the HDD would not get any *Kill* commands (whatever those might be).
Dr_Know report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

to Andy

Nov 26, 2008 11:11     

What if the HDD is encrypted?
ITBalaGyi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Full-disk encryption really isn't that hard

Nov 26, 2008 11:35     

BIOS erasing the hard disk (after the attacker already has your data) assuming the attacker hasn't turned the 3G connection off by the time you decide to do this by getting a text message? Completely ass-backwards. Ubuntu alternate installer, full hard disk encryption with LVM, have /boot on a USB-disk. Problem solved. Oh you're using windows? Then your data is going to get stolen anyway.
Jon report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I agree with andy

Nov 26, 2008 11:42     

Yes! we need exploding laptops! KA-BOOM!
Shane report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Seems useless

Nov 26, 2008 11:59     

If the laptop is stolen and the guy is smart, he'll just open it up before it's turned on, take out the network card 3G gsm card, since both of these are nearly always add-ons not on the Motherboard. And voila, the laptop will never get the message. Second, as many have pointed out, there's little point in this as long as the data on the disk is not encrypted. Even if a mechanism that would format the drive existed in the bios, one would just have to pull the battery out and it would stop the format.

Aexcorp report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Lenovo kicks ass!

Nov 26, 2008 12:01     

IMHO, Lenovo is the most user friendly laptop maker after Apple. Their facial recognition technology was also a cool feature for security purposes. www.fuminyang.com
Fumin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

HDD's are/can be encrypted

Nov 26, 2008 12:07     

The user can enable hard drive encryption, so if the hdd is disabled nobody can access the data.
Shane report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Lenovo HDD Security

Nov 26, 2008 12:09     

http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/security/securecomm.html
Shane report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

great concept, BUT...

Nov 26, 2008 12:43     

very intriguing but there's lots of unanswered questions... -Mike http://stuffididlastnight.com
Mike Hillard report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Great Concept...

Nov 26, 2008 13:26     

Too bad it will only work maybe 5% of the time. This sounds more like LoJack's snake oil special rather than something useful. It's a dependent system meaning it will rely on a multitude of resources to function. Say the perp never joins on to the 3G network? Let's say he's smart and removes the car all together since it's a cellular device and can be triangulated and traced to his position accordingly. This also relies on the fact that the owner will be active on the cellular card via a provider as well and even then, if I read this right, the software still has to intervene? If the card is inactive there's not much it can do. If the system never reaches the operating system to load the software to command it, it's bust there too. Most perps don't care what's on your hard drive since a simple wipe and reinstall can make it 'new' again. BIOS password? Sure- but check the web- many ways to overcome that with a little know-how. Weak sauce people.

ZeroLux report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

One problems solution

Nov 27, 2008 02:03     

I'm all for it exploding if you could just get the Webcam operational remotely first :)
Ian report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

This would work well with PGP.

Nov 29, 2008 13:17     

Mix this with PGP Whole Disk Encryption and you are safe as long as the computer was not stolen while turned on.
Ralf The Dog report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

HP has a different... and better feature

Nov 30, 2008 04:14     

HP, for a few years now, has had the capability to wipe the system's drive remotely if the system has been stolen. It is with the help of Computrace (gotta pay for it to work, but it's in the notebooks BIOS). It requires the NIC to be plugged in if the system's on (OS doesn't need to run). They'll also work with law enforcement to recover the goods 'cause that initial ping gets fingered. I do like the idea of a wireless option as that is so much more prevalent nowadays. I bet HP will find a way to add the drive wipe feature (unlike Lenovo) to their drivelock and drive encryption on the next round of books (refreshed in spring '09).

Ethan Olson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Maybe?

Nov 30, 2008 21:16     

Sounds like a good feature. What would be better is if the HDD was "locked" to the system in that it can not work in other computers or enclosures. Instead of a password to re-enable the PC make it a USB dongle that has a chip thats read for the password.
Drew report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

http://www.crossfireconsulting.net

Dec 24, 2008 16:47     

And yet another wonderful idea from the "top offices" that no one was willing to explain why it was not a good idea. Here you are protecting your firm's secrets on the laptop with your life and poof some hacker zaps you good. Make sure you have duplicate backups ( encrypted of course ). Make sure that the encryption key is written down somewhere ( as opposed to being on the zapped laptop hard drive which is now unreadable) It reminds me of a friend's advice , he was a veteran of corporate politics and culture, His advice was that at the meetings , no matter how stupid the idea was to reply was asked "Now that idea has merit". He told me you never know "whose stupid idea it is" "It might be the company president's idea and he may well be sitting right next to you when you make that comment" It would be a "career limiting move"

Syd's Storey report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0