Intel: Render Stolen Laptops Unbootable

Intel is working on new technology that would better secure laptops in the case of theft. It’s being called “Anti-Theft Technology”, aka ATT, and they plan to roll it out later this year (although, according to the article, it won’t be available for some time).

While there is already disk encryption available that can prevent people from obtaining personal data, this would take things one step further, since it would render the whole laptop useless to the would-be thieves. As it stands now, laptop thieves could easily replace the hard drives, and then sell the laptops elsewhere.

It involves a chip in the laptop that would stop the machine from booting up without the owner’s permission.

It’s not just Intel working on this either:

Intel isn’t working on this initiative alone, though. In fact, a number of third parties announced today that they were partnering up with Intel to support ATT, such as Absolute Software Corporation (creators of firmware-based data protection/tracking solutions), BIOS maker Phoenix, and Utimaco (a data security company), to name a few. Intel also says that McAfee is on board, as well as manufacturers like Lenovo and Fujitsu.

- Full article at Ars Technica

Security in a Mobile World

There’s a good article at MobilityToday.com about security for mobile users - it looks at physical and network security, as well as what are the major threats (not just laptop theft). Well-written, and covers what they consider to be five major areas that mobile users need to be aware of: physical security, application/data security, network security, physical device theft, and wireless security.

Is Your Laptop Worth a Million?

CNET is running an article about a study that Symantec did, that estimates just how much a laptop is worth, when you factor in the data stored on the laptop:

A report released Friday by security-software company Symantec suggests that an ordinary notebook holds content valued at 550,000 pounds ($972,000), and that some could store as much as 5 million pounds–or $8.8 million–in commercially sensitive data and intellectual property.

“It’s alarming that executives have mobile devices containing data of such financial value and that very little is being done to protect the information on them,” said Lindsey Armstrong, a vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Symantec.

Granted, it’s a software security company releasing this report and so some of you may question it, but take a look at what’s stored on your laptop, and you might be surprised. Even if it’s for personal use, you probably have a lot of information stored that would be hard to recreate if something happened (not just theft, but perhaps an accident). This could lead to a big push for more and more manufacturers to include fingerprint readers or other similar measures. IBM and now Lenovo have had incredibly strong harddrive passwords for years now, and adding fingerprint readers and other measures will help a great deal.

Full Article

Software Security/Tracking Options - Orbicule Undercover, Absolute

In kind of a follow-up to the mention of one million ThinkPads being sold with the biometric/fingerprint-reader hardware security options, there is also software available for those who don’t have that option, that may help you recover a stolen notebook.

Gizmodo mentions a piece of software for tracking stolen Macs (iBook, PowerBook, MacBook), called Orbicule Undercover. In addition to emailing IP information, it sends other information that may help identify the person(s) who stole or received a stolen Apple notebook. Undercover costs $29.99 and the money is refunded if your notebook can’t be tracked down.

Orbicule:

In case of theft, Undercover not only reveals the internet location of your Mac, it also transmits screenshots, enabling you to closely monitor your stolen Mac. In fact, it’s the first theft recovery software on any platform to do this. As these screenshots are sent at regular intervals, they will sooner or later reveal the thief’s identity (e.g. when chatting, reading e-mail,…) making it much easier to work with law enforcement in order to recover your Mac.

In the course of the discussion that followed, a Gizmodo user pointed to a Windows-based piece of software, from Absolute Software, called CompuTraceComplete and CompuTrace LoJack, that has similar goals, and has the added bonus of a “Absolute Recovery Guarantee (PDF)” of up to $1000 dollars if they are unable to help you recover it within 60 days.

Absolute Software:

ComputraceComplete lets you efficiently monitor who is using your computers, what hardware and software changes they make, and where your laptops are.

And if your computer goes missing? We’ll recover it within 60 days or you may receive up to $1,000* per computer.

This Month: One Million Biometric ThinkPads Sold

EFYTimes.com reported last month that sometime in January, Lenovo would sell its one millionth biometric ThinkPad. This should make it the first manufacturer with an integrated fingerprint-reader in its notebook lineup to hit the one million mark. This security feature is present in certain models in the ultraportable ThinkPad X41 series as well as the new ultraportable ThinkPad X60 series.

EFYTimes:

Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Notebook Business Unit, Lenovo:

“It’s very unusual to find a new feature that makes your PC more secure while making it much easier to use. The ThinkPad fingerprint reader is popular because it is one of those rare exceptions. By tying strong passwords to your fingerprint, you can make PC security simple and effective in order to protect your customers’ data, as well as your own personal information.”

It’s getting towards the end of the month and I haven’t heard much about this, so I thought I would mention this article, since I think a lot of notebooks are going to have this feature available over the next few years.

via Gadgetell

TrueCrypt 4.0

If you are interested in security for your laptop (and who isn’t), TrueCrypt 4.0 has been released. TrueCrypt is free/open-source encryption software for Linux and Windows 2000, XP, 2003.

Among the features:
* It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk.
* It can encrypt an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB memory stick, floppy disk, etc.
* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

1) Hidden volume (more information may be found here).
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (TrueCrypt volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

* Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Blowfish (448-bit key), CAST5, Serpent (256-bit key), Triple DES, and Twofish (256-bit key). Supports cascading (e.g., AES-Twofish-Serpent).
* Based on Encryption for the Masses (E4M) 2.02a, which was conceived in 1997.

You can read about the changes in 4.0 here.
Read more