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    x201 intel anti-theft

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by stupidolive, Oct 20, 2010.

  1. stupidolive

    stupidolive Notebook Consultant

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    hi guys,
    do you guys notice that there's an app called Intel Anti Theft in x201? i do not know what it is but it says "Enabled" for me but then one of the tabs in the app says not activated or something like that so I don't understand what exactly i have to do.
    thanks!
     
  2. fem

    fem Notebook Consultant

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    It's a technology built in the processor, that allows for laptops to disable themselves if they get lost or stolen, and then reactivated and return to normal operation when (if) the laptop is recovered. Read this for more info.
     
  3. stupidolive

    stupidolive Notebook Consultant

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    well i know that but do you know how to activate it?
    thanks
     
  4. fem

    fem Notebook Consultant

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  5. warakawa

    warakawa Notebook Evangelist

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    They need to put a GPS in there as well.
     
  6. fem

    fem Notebook Consultant

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    Not a GPS, but a WWAN card, like the Gobi or equivalent from Ericsson - the whole thing is done by SMS-ing the laptop. ;)

    GPS would be needed for tracking the lappy, not disabling/enabling it. Of course, most WWAN cards nowadays have GPS as well (e.g. the Gobi2000).
     
  7. erik

    erik modifier

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  8. fem

    fem Notebook Consultant

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    great- thanks for pointing that out. so they monitor the IP? how is this done?
     
  9. cyber16

    cyber16 Notebook Deity

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    I would like to also understand this better as well, may have to purchase the service as a safe-guard.

    It would seem that they would have to use something like the mac address of iether the lan or wan cards.
    Or the identifier of the cpu?

    It would be far to easy to change the mac addresses.
    ?
    I understand this all takes place at bios level, yet there has to be some sort of identifier

    edit
    Well none of our current thinkpads support this feature, looks to be for the 2010 models, although our Dell 6510 does, need to understand how this works and will my data be safe if the service is purchased
     
  10. warakawa

    warakawa Notebook Evangelist

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    So what happens when the IP address is identified? Does it go to the local police or intel sends you an email with the IP address?
     
  11. cyber16

    cyber16 Notebook Deity

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    No the way I read/understand, Intel or the local law have nothing to do with this security, it is software driven, seems to lead more towards data protection, not really recovery of the machine
     
  12. erik

    erik modifier

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    the technology itself is hardware-based however intel doesn't specify how the disabling message is received.

     
  13. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

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    in a corprate environment, data protection is paramount, lost machine can be replaced easily and cheaply, but loss of sensitive data to competitors is lot more dangerous.
     
  14. fem

    fem Notebook Consultant

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    ok, so how does it work without internet access? Can I call them and tell them that my laptop is stolen and they will magically disable it?