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Fujitsu Siemens adds 'kill pill' to laptops

by on28 November 2008

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Steal that brick


Fujitsu Siemens is to offer a security bundle for its customers that will allow them to locate their laptops, as well as protect confidential data, in case of theft.

SystemTrack and DataProtect will be available from the first quarter of 2009 in selected Lifebook models, and in all business line models of the Esprimo mobile series. Fujitsu Siemens says when a business or consumer buys either one of the selected laptops, they will be offered the security products as an optional extra.

Users simply need to register their laptops with the Computrace Customer Centre, and if their machines are stolen, they can report the theft in a similar manner as reporting the loss of a credit or banking card. Then SystemTrack then tracks the stolen machine in real-time and detects its location as soon as the device is connected to the Internet or intranet.

The device can even be recovered in this way, as three baggage handlers at Tampa International Airport found out to their cost back in April this year.

With DataProtect, FSC says that confidential data on a laptop can be protected, because if a machine is stolen, the support desk can access the system and save the confidential data centrally in the system  or, if necessary, completely delete the data.

The help desk can also render the hardware useless via a so-called "kill pill" although this software does not mean there will be a low level disk format to wipe the data. It just means that after the system is blocked, the BIOS expects a password to do anything new.

If the device is returned to the customer after the kill pill has been activated, users can remove the protection and boot the system again using a special password.
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