Slashdot Mirror
Lenovo Service Disables Laptops With a Text Message
narramissic writes "Lenovo plans to announce on Tuesday a service that allows users to remotely disable a PC by sending a text message. A user can send the command from a specified cell phone number — each ThinkPad can be paired with up to 10 cell phones — to kill a PC. The software will be available free from Lenovo's Web site. It will also be available on certain ThinkPad notebooks equipped with mobile broadband starting in the first half of 2009. 'You steal my PC and ... if I can deliver a signal to that PC that turns it off, hey, I'm good now,' said Stacy Cannady, product manager of security at Lenovo. 'The limitation here is that you have to have a WAN card in the PC and you must be paying a data plan for it,' Cannady added."
My normal Slashdot cynicism wants to find a problem with this technology, but I can't so far, other than that a smart thief would just make sure to remove the WAN card and flash the BIOS (possibly with a new serial number or the remote disable, uh, disabled).
You win this time, Lenovo. *shakes fist*
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Thieves typically dont have the IQ to do any of that. When I was robbed, we nailed the thief not only from the video cameras that he looked right at to give us a awesome face shot, but he stole my daughters cellphone. He left it on all the time reporting his position. The cops had his ass in less than 24 hours.
Honestly thieves barely know how to use a screwdriver outside of prying a door or window with it. You seriously think one would do the delicate task of opening a laptop or flashing the bios? That's plain old funny.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So you're telling me there will be a GSM module in the laptop that is constantly connecting to my network to wait for such a kill signal? Like say, a tracing bug? I know it'll be a pain for the thief but what about me? What a craptacular idea. Having my laptop become my personal GSM tracking device. Where have I been? Wait lets ask my "anti theft"-device.
Even if they don't, this gives a false sense of security.
"if I can deliver a signal to that PC that turns it off, hey, I'm good now." Um, no, you're not. The thief can remove the hard drive and connect it to another PC to read its content.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
This feature doesn't seem to be aimed at stopping blackhats or organized criminals, two of the more "intelligent" varieties. No, this thing is meant to royally screw Joe Crackhead.
The feature doesn't appear as if it's ever going to stop a sophisticated high-tech criminal, naturally. Nor does this seem the intent. Identity thieves and data miners don't even need possession of the laptop, so no good there. Even then, the new feature is easily defeated. Organized criminals tend to know what they're doing as well, and any safety measure can be defeated by competence and planning. Still, they're both rare enough.
No, this sounds perfect for the two-bit junkie, the most common of criminals. Brick the laptop, especially remotely, and suddenly it's worthless for him to offload for his fix.
Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?
Thieves typically dont have the IQ to do any of that.
Remember, there are two kinds of thieves. There are amateurs and there are pros.
Amateurs are desperate people, usually because of an addiction of some sort, who steal whenever an opportunity presents itself. They see a car with an unlocked door, or an open window and they act. These people are the most common type of thieves, and will be caught with this technology.
Professionals steal things for a living. They are very calculated and know all of the security measures people use, and how to avoid them. This technology will not stop a professional. In fact, nothing will stop a professional. Professionals are why you buy insurance.
Fortunately, there aren't many professional thieves. When you think about it, it's very difficult to become a professional thief. This is because a pro cannot be desperate. They need to have time to study their target and come up with a plan of attack. This requires a person with a certain personality, that doesn't steal out of last resort, but steals for some other reason. There aren't many people like this in the world, and most of them are caught before they become very good at stealing.
My favorite piece of information about stopping thieves can be found here. (Warning, link contains flash video)
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I think you need to find different friends
I think almost everyone has an asshole "friend" that would pull a stunt like that.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
This is not about data protection. It is about making the device unusable. Just like you can block your phone when it is stolen.
It will not stop thiefs of stealing your device. It will not protect your data. As far as I read it does not even claim to do that.
So, all the talk about how this forces the drive encryption to activate by requiring a shutdown rather than a suspend/hibernate wasn't about protecting data?
from TFA:
Since hard disk drive encryption will not work properly if the PC is running or in hibernation mode, this disable feature ensures that the data is secure by shutting the machine down and allowing the hard disk drive encryption to work. If and when the ThinkPad laptop is recovered, the user can restore the notebook, its settings and the data contained on the PC by entering a password.
So, there is nothing about protecting the data? Carry on.