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Phoenix Unveils Anti-Theft BIOS
linuxwrangler writes "According to articles at PC World, c|net, Internet Week and elsewhere, Phoenix Technology is introducing a new BIOS-based anti-theft system. Every time a TheftGuard equipped machine connects to the internet it pings a server at Phoenix which can instruct the machine to wipe its hard drive, report its location or disable itself. Given that most people don't want to have their every movement tracked and don't want someone else to have the power to wipe their drives, Phoenix figures that corporate clients are the prime customer. I just wonder who is liable when a company sells a surplus laptop on eBay but gets their inventory control screwed up and reports it as stolen..."
It was stolen. Police are investigating.
Damn Mozilla!
Aww! How do we expect to get an "early release" of Doom 4 now?
Remember, Murphy was an optimist.
I'll wait for the first virus that activates this feature while spoofing the HW address.
"Help, Phoenix, I've been STOLEN!!! Nevermind that guy I've got in chains and a gag, BLOW THIS PLACE UP!! NOW!!!"
*BLAM*.
One less Windows XP install in the world. Then again, this might be very useful as a LART...
"What was you machine's name again? *Clickety-click*
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
I would like to report that as a beta tester this new bios has served me flawlessly. I have 100 percent faith that I will never suffer any loss of data on its behalf. For all you skeptics out there I can guarantee....
<CARRIER DISCONNECTED>
Wiping the drive after it is removed from the machine is a pretty neat trick.
Something like TheftGuard? It's like saying "TheftGuard is OK. But check out things that are like it, and you'll really be impressed."
Quick -- where's 106.223.16.98 right now.
Does this just stop people stealing computers, or will it stop them stealing product names also? ;)
(ducks for cover)
From my experience, CEOs usually have very very fine assistants.
Hey, maybe she is actually very technically capable, and consciously activated the erase-all-data feature just so have an excuse to talk to you, give you a chance to ask for her extension etc. =)
Aww shutup and let me daydream.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
A 500V shock direct to the testicles?
now that would be THE anti-theft feature. who would screw with that? /me wonders....
http://music.x757x.org/ - techno dj mixes for your pleasure
We've traced the computer back to an IP address of 127.0.0.1, some ISP called 'localhost'... Look, I can ping it from here!!!! Nuke it now!!! ..... DOH!
Burma?
here's another:
;-P
disgruntled fired admin, on his last day, instructs firewall servers to redirect pings to phoenixbios.net: boom! every computer in the company gets an empty harddrive
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"It always amazes me when some student at my campus steals a lab computer and doesn't think that our DHCP server will let us know the next time it gets plugged back in to our network. Over half our stolen computers get recovered that way. Just last night, one was stolen (end of the academic year is always bad for theft) and the kid decides to plug it in in his room. He really should have waited 5 more days to use it and he would have graduated on time. Now he is facing expulsion. Idiots!"
How about the student working on his thesis that decides it's a good idea to do a ISS scan on the college network...using the TRIAL version thus producing a nice popup on EVERY pc telling who scanned you and from what IP!!
It's directly across the road from 106.223.16.96, stupid. Gee whiz, you'll never be a cop.
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Somebody hacks into the company and flips the kill switch on all the bios's. Thousdands of laptops, most of them not backed up routinely, are wiped. Ouchy.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
The MS IIS marketing team can help.
Are you suggesting that there is a criminal element at work on Kazaa? Because last time I checked it was just a music/file swapping network....
Every time I open a system case, I feel like stealing the BIOS. Screw the CPU(s), memory, video card(s) and hard drive(s), just gimme that BIOS chip!
OLPC Australia
you forgot the suggested: ;) i honestly wonder how some people get their degrees.
2 viruses = virii
3 viruses = viriii
and so on. now doesn't that make one feel educated?
i guess an unknown quantity of viruses would be vir(i*)... as in, "well, there are many vir(i*) that could be the end of humanity." *shakes head in wonderment*
Or one of those nifty thermite reactions-in-a-3.5"-drive-bay jobs.
Now THAT's a cooked sausage!
I will now redundantly add my name to the end of my post. You know, in case you forgot me or something.
Time for tin foil underwear!
The truth shall set you free!
Likewise, it doesn't take more than a little research to find someone who can make "Phoenix Theft-Guard Protected" stickers for your laptop for a few pennies a pop.
Personally, I'd go with the "This Laptop is GPS enabled and filled with C4 explosives set to go off when reported stolen. Enjoy life with your three out of ten fingers."
No, no, no.. It's inelegant to extend a latin root by just adding extra "i"s.. To be true to the spirit of the language, surely it would be more appropriate to proceed thusly:
4 viruses = viriv
9 viruses = virix
1001 viruses = virmi
etc..
Some guy in the Phoenix marketing has a brilliant idea ! Let's "market" the bios so that every year the user is forced to buy a "security upgrade" and let's call it a "security feature". At worse we'll blame either pirates like some other big company does, or we'll blame hackers. I hear the master hacker is hiding in caves...
It seems obvious to me they want to extract more money out of customers by crippling the bios rather then by really improving it.
It's never safe to bet against incompetence :D
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.