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Phoenix Unveils Anti-Theft BIOS

Posted by timothy on from the phoning-home dept.

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..."

7 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Shortly after the BIOS was unveiled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was stolen. Police are investigating.

  2. I'm confused... by Patik · · Score: 5, Funny
    Is this Phoenix the web browser, or Phoenix the BIOS?

    Damn Mozilla!

  3. Re:Replaceable Bios by GGardner · · Score: 5, Funny
    even if you remove the hard drive, we can still track or disable the machine, or wipe the drive,

    Wiping the drive after it is removed from the machine is a pretty neat trick.

  4. whaaaaa by lingqi · · Score: 5, Funny
    How bad will it suck when it happens to the CEO's assistant's laptop and she comes storming into your pitiful excuse for a NOC right before you were supposed to go on lunch?

    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.

  5. Re:I am a user of this new technology.. by alexburke · · Score: 5, Funny

    <CARRIER DISCONNECTED>

    Dude, if you're gonna act all I-was-hip-way-back-in-the-BBS-days, at least get it righ&' 8Ré
    NO CARRIER

  6. Re:actually you are both right, but... by eeyoredragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    you forgot the suggested:
    2 viruses = virii
    3 viruses = viriii
    and so on. now doesn't that make one feel educated? ;) i honestly wonder how some people get their degrees.

    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*

  7. When in Rome.. by McNally · · Score: 5, Funny

    you forgot the suggested:
    2 viruses = virii
    3 viruses = viriii
    and so on...

    i guess an unknown quantity of viruses would be vir(i*)...


    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..