Intel hints at Lo-Jack technology for Notebooks Thousands of notebook computers are stolen each year. Millions of dollars of information and corporate trade secrets is lost. With theft of notebook computers comes identify theft and results in criminals assuming identities of unsuspecting victims. Intel announced over at IDF: Shanghai that it has been in works with OEMs Fujitsu-Siemens, Phoenix Technologies, Lenovo, and McAfee on lo-jack like technology designed to lock the a notebook in the event it is stolen. Being called Intel Anti-Theft Technology, it allows system administrators and notebook owners to remotely lock down a notebook. Though details are still sketchy, it appears it is a hardware-based solution designed to encrypt the contents of hard drive, disable the system, and protect the hard drive. Intel's goal to tie actual system operation into the OS login process or make a password be entered far earlier in the boot sequence. Intel hopes to advance the technology to the point to where a notebook owner could recover the notebook. The technology differs from current solutions because even if the hard drive was replaced, the notebook is still rendered useless. It's expected to be available to the public sometime in Quarter 4 of 2008 with notebooks sold under the Centrino vPro platform, though it's quite possible that it may be available in time for Centrino 2 notebooks.
