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Intel announces lo-jack for laptops, but offers few details

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

April 4, 2008, 4:22 PM

Intel, Phoenix Technologies, Fujitsu-Siemens, Lenovo, and McAfee have announced their collaborative effort to create a remote access solution that allows a laptop to be locked down in the event of a theft or loss.

Precisely how Intel's Anti-Theft Technology (ATT) will function was not fully elucidated today at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, but it has been said that it will be added to the Active Management Technology present in Centrino vPro systems, which enables remote management functions.

Phoenix -- most known for its BIOS -- announced that its Failsafe technology will be embedded into the core firmware layer in ATT-equipped systems, resulting in a non-deletable solution for data encryption and remote command and control.

The Anti-Theft Technology is expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of this year, but Intel did not specify whether this will be when complete systems are ready, or when the technology will be offered to OEMs. It's possible the launch of ATT will be timed to coincide with the debut of Centrino 2.

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By dougau

edited Apr 6, 2008 - 12:38 PM

Lo-Jack for laptops already exist and is built into the BIOS of some Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, and Apple laptop computers. http://www.lojackforlapt...-lojack-for-laptops.asp
You have to buy a subscription and activate it and after that it phones home with the IP address the computer is connected to once a day. If your computer is ever stolen they will report this info to law enforcement to help track it down and give you the option of wiping your hard drive. As it is installed in BIOS it will continue to work even if the hard drive is replaced.

Absolute Software Corporation is the owner of the technology that Intel, Phoenix Technologies, Fujitsu-Siemens, Lenovo, and McAfee have announced they will steal.

There's going to be a lawsuit over this one.

Score: 0

By Ramhound

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 9:39 PM

lo-jack is a common term, not very many words exist that describe the meaning of "lo-jack" the company only has rights to their products.

The technology Intel annouced is NOT called " lo-jack" they called Anti-Theft Technology.

Score: 0

By dvferret

posted Apr 7, 2008 - 11:47 AM

Dang, speak a little more clearly.

Score: 0

By flibberyGiveIt

posted Apr 6, 2008 - 1:59 PM

Lojack is like "band-aid" (http://www.band-aid.com/)
nowadays, and refers to what the product LoJack
(http://lojack.com/) does.

Score: 0

By pipdipchip

posted Apr 5, 2008 - 5:26 PM

I know. I was referring to the article title.

Score: 0

By pipdipchip

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 8:43 PM

Lo-jack already has an anti-theft system for laptops. I don't think they'll like their brand name being used to be to explain a competing company's services.

Score: 0

By ogman

posted Apr 6, 2008 - 8:15 AM

Yeah, but they make a lousy product and probably won't be in business long once people realize that changing out a hard drive on a stolen laptop isn't actually real hard to do.

Score: 0

By xer0

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 8:26 PM

heh, i bet theres already a hack for it

Score: 0

By sorlag

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 6:38 PM

if youve lost your laptop. norton antivirus gets installed, and locks up your computer ^^

Score: 0

By Michael.Hatamoto

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 7:57 PM

Considering the number of laptops stolen that contain customer data and personal information, I welcome a lo-jack technology that can lock the notebook down.

I look forward to hearing a bit more about this technology moving forward.

Score: 0

By extremely well

posted Apr 5, 2008 - 2:39 AM

You don't need to wait. You can use TrueCrypt to encrypt the system partition right now.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=system-encryption

Score: 0

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