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AU Government To Build "Unhackable" Netbooks

Posted by kdawson on from the smells-like-a-challenge dept.

bennyboy64 writes "In what may be one of the largest roll-outs yet of Microsoft's new Windows 7 Operating System, Australia's Federal Government decided to give 240,000 Lenovo IdeaPad S10e netbooks to Year 9-12 students. Officials are calling them 'unhackable.' iTnews reports that the laptops come armed with an enterprise version of the Windows 7 OS, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 creative suite, Apple iTunes, and content geared specifically to students. New South Wales Department of Education CIO Stephen Wilson said that schools were 'the most hostile environment you can roll computers into.' While the netbooks are loaded with many hundreds of dollars worth of software, 2GB of RAM, and a 6-hour battery, the cost to the NSW Department of Education is under $435 (US) a unit. Wilson praised Windows' new OS: 'There was no way we could do any of this on XP,' he said. 'Windows 7 nailed it for us.' At the physical layer, each netbook is password-protected and embedded with tracking software that is embedded at the BIOS level of the machine. If a netbook were to be stolen or sold, the Department of Education is able to remotely disable the device over the network. Each netbook is also fitted with a passive RFID chip which will enable the netbooks to be identified 'even if they were dropped in a bathtub.' The Department of Education also uses the AppLocker functionality within Windows 7 to dictate which applications can be installed."

4 of 501 comments (clear)

  1. Too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I just spoke to a friend in Australia.. its been pwned already using the nuke the bios and boot from a livecd method.

    They even disabled the RFID.

  2. There sure are a lot of stories on /. that... by Informative · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... give the impression that Austalia's governors are stupid fucks.

  3. Re:So stupid by Johnny+Loves+Linux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >What is it with governments and hubris? If they had just shipped all these laptops without any mention of "unhackableness", you know what would have happened?

    Here are some clues for why they announced such a thing. From the article: 'There was no way we could do any of this on XP,' he said. 'Windows 7 nailed it for us.' *and* the cost to the NSW Department of Education is under $435 (US)

    Care to make a wager as to whether or not a certain large corporation in the Pacific Northwest gave them an extra special deal on the hardware & software on the condition that they praise Windows 7 over XP? I mean, they're purchasing netbooks and running Windows 7 on them instead of the lighter weight XP? Anybody else see anything wrong with this picture?

  4. Re:Sure... by tangent3 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The main issue with the Atom is that it does not do Out of order execution.
    ARM processors do, so an equivalently speed ARM will easily out perform the Atom