Intel's Latest Tech to Help Decrease Notebook Theft (Hopefully)

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
Notebooks are great for offering computing on the go, but at the same time, the portability can also be a downside. The more the notebook is out of the house, the greater the chance that it could get stolen, even if you only take your eye off of it for a minute. I've never had this happen to me, but I can understand the frustration that it would cause... the money paid for it wouldn't even be the problem. The problem would be all of the personal information loaded on there, including photos, videos and even documents.

With notebooks growing extremely quick in popularity, the risk continues to grow with it that your notebook could suffer the fate of being stolen. Intel is looking to fight that possibility back by offering a new technology called Anti-Theft Technology, or ATT.

The concept is simple. If your notebook is stolen, it cannot be boot without the owners permission, which I assume to be either be a password-based solution or require the swipe of a finger. Swapping the hard drive would have no effect either, and I'd imagine that with ATT and an encrypted drive together, the notebook would be virtually useless to any thief. Here's to hoping that this tech is well executed and catches on fast.

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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.

Source: Ars Technica
 

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
They would have to register the owner in some way, just in case it thought the owner was the thief.
Good idea, but just another thing to go wrong for the rightful owner
just my 2 cents

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 

gml_josea

Obliviot
No matter how much security it has, if someone steals your notebook and is interested in the data you have there, he will find a way in. There's nothing 100% safe or secure in this world.
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
Yeah, and you can still die is a Mercedez Benz, regardless of their wonderful safety record. The point that these companies are trying to make is that with each advancement in security tech, they lower the odds of someone being able to steal that data by lowering the number of people in the world that know how to get around the blocks.

This same point can be made for WEP wireless encryption. 99 people out of 100 have no idea how to crack this so for most all users, it works. There are however those that can crack it with little difficulty. Thats why there is WPA.

Your right in saying that with enough will power, it can still be hacked but with each advancement, it lowers the amount of people in the world that can actually extract the data. They are all steps in the right direction.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Heh, off topic but speaking of WEP... just got some work done on my car. Large GM dealership, and a very good/nice one at that. They provide customer WIFI.

Off chance I brought my laptop incase they had any... after signing a waiver they gave me the code to use it. Turned out it was only WEP 64-bit encryption. After watching a tech-guy I know crack one of my relative's 128bit WEP security in just half a minute... sheesh. It didn't take any real hacking knowledge at all
 
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Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Heh, off topic but speaking of WEP... just got some work done on my car. Large GM dealership, and a very good/nice one at that. They provide customer WIFI.

Off chance I brought my laptop incase they had any... after signing a waiver they gave me the code to use it. Turned out it was only WEP 64-bit encryption. After watching a tech-guy I know crack one of my relative's 128bit WEP security in just half a minute... sheesh. It didn't take any real hacking knowledge at all
Yeah, I set up home networks as well as commercial.....
It's usually the dogs name/cat name or sometimes their last name for 128 bit security...the ( paraphrase )
ANd commercial they want street address or something else simple so they can remember it if they ever have to re input it.

And, when I'm at work I can find many un secure routers all over the place and I can connect to mapquest, for the new roads not on my GPS navigator

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
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Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
with each advancement, it lowers the amount of people in the world that can actually extract the data. They are all steps in the right direction.

Well said. Crime is never going to just disappear, but any advance in technology to help prevent more and more of it is only a good thing. You might just come to appreciate it if it's your notebook that's stolen.

Off chance I brought my laptop incase they had any... after signing a waiver they gave me the code to use it. Turned out it was only WEP 64-bit encryption. After watching a tech-guy I know crack one of my relative's 128bit WEP security in just half a minute... sheesh. It didn't take any real hacking knowledge at all

Obviously that place doesn't have much of an IT department. I think even my own mother could set up a more secure connection than that. Even WPA can be cracked, but it takes a lot of time and effort, so even then, it's wise to change your key from time to time (mostly if you live in a very populated area).
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I guess I should of said something to them in hindsight. My laptop even gave me a message about wanting to link up to the WRT54G router they were using as a PNP device. I currently use the WRT54GS, same router and I know it supports Personal / Enterprise modes of WPA and WPA2 along with 128-bit WEP, so they truly had zero excuse.
 

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Back to the subject.....:p

No matter what they do, someone will try to break the code, just because it's a challenge, you can get a pretty cheap Notebook now......so the reason someone stealing it could be they want the files.... They could just take the drive out and use it.... I'm no hacker by far :cool:.....but it seems possible.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
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