Security is always a hot topic on the computer market and it wasn’t long ago we told you about Lenovo’s SMS-based security technology. What Lenovo’s technology lacked was a way of finding the stolen computer. This is something Ericsson hopes to remedy with Intel’s Anti-Theft PC Protection Technology. Ericsson and Intel are cooperating to integrate the chip giant’s new security technology into the telecom company’s broadband modules. The basic idea is that a simple SMS command will lock the computer or activate some sort of security measure.
So far the technology is quite similar to Lenovo and its Constant Secure Remote Disable technology, but there is more. The trump is that the broadband module has an integrated GPU function that also makes it possible to track the PC.
“The theft management service can also take advantage of built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in the Ericsson mobile broadband module, which can send location data to a central server. The location function can be utilized to determine a theft situation when the notebook is moved outside a pre-defined area — a so called geo-fence to locate a lost notebook.”
Theoretically the thief can open up the computer and rip out the module, but we are certain that there are plenty of thieves that would be surprised by a computer that would suddenly turn off and at the same time tell the owner or the police where it is.
Ericsson’s mobile broadband module
Products with Intel’s Anti-Theft PC Protection Technology and Ericsson’s broadband modules will appear sometime in the second half of 2009. Whether it will be revealed which computers that will be using the modules remains to be seen…
