Archive for the ‘Computrace’ Category

Absolute Software made two big announcements recently about it’s leading laptop security software platform, Computrace.

New Computrace Plug-In for McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator

Not only is LoJack for Laptops (Computrace for consumers) now available in the McAfee online store, but Computrace customers can now view asset tracking and security information within the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO)!

This new plug-in allows IT administrators to use the ePO software to deploy Computrace to ePO managed assets, to view reports from one central place (vs two dashboards), and to set up summary reports on computers & mobile assets with Computrace installed.

The Absolute Customer Center will continue to offer additional ways to manage your Computrace-protected assets, including geolocation tracking, recovery of missing assets, and performance of remote data deletes. Learn more about this news here.

Computrace for Netbooks Now Abailable

Computrace for Netbooks was launched last week, extending our award-winning laptop security platform to a whole series of ultra-portable computers that are popular with schools, healthcare organizations and corporations.

“Computer populations now include desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets and now netbooks – often of different ages from a variety of manufacturers. Our goal is to provide visibility and security regardless of form factor and computer brand.” – John Livingston, Chairman and CEO of Absolute

Computrace for Netbooks is available for both PC and Mac operating systems. Learn more about this news here.

Absolute Software recently announced that Getac computers now support Computrace at the firmware level.

The Getac Rugged Notebook (model A790) and Rugged Tablet (V100) are the latest laptops with embedded Computrace support. The B300, E100, M230 & P470 models will be phased in over the coming months, making it so all Getac rugged laptop and tablet computers will feature Computrace.

The Computrace BIOS support module is shipped disabled and turned off from the manufacturer. Once the customer installs the Computrace Agent, pays for the Absolute Tracking and Recovery service and activates the Computrace BIOS support module, then the extra level of security and firmware persistence will be activated.

Embedding support for the Computrace Agent into the BIOS provides customers the highest level of persistence and allows the Computrace agent to survive operating system re-installations, hard drive reformats and even hard drive replacements. Getac president, Jim Rimay, says:

“Having Computrace embedded in the firmware of our computers gives our customers the additional security and satisfaction of knowing they can track and manage computers as well as delete sensitive data even if the hard drive is replaced or reformatted. Absolute’s services are an ideal complement to our world-class rugged notebook computers and tablets.”

For a full list of firmware-supported computers (from Dell to Fujitsu to Toshiba and more), see here.

Also check out Daily DIY’s “Top 10 Ways to Lock Down Your Data“, which encapsulates many of the tips we’ve talked about here on the blog before. The list includes tips such as encryption, using KeePass for password security, using smarter security questions and protecting your laptop (something we can help with).

Absolute Software announced a whole series of improvements to the Absolute Customer Center, which is the web-based console that enables customers to secure and manage their computers, whether this be tracking their locations or reporting devices as missing.

The Absolute Care Center, which caters to corporate Computrace customers, is now available in 10 languages, 11 if you want to be smart and count U.S. English as different than U.K. English. ;)

In addition to the language support, which expands our capabilities within the EMEA, South American and Asia-Pacific markets, you can now access enhanced security, management and usability features as part of the Customer Center. Some of the new features include:

• Additional security features available with Intel Anti-Theft Technology-enabled computers (ability to unlock missing computers that are subsequently found)
• Support for Safari & Firefox browsers, in addition to Internet Explorer
• Quicker access to IT asset information with a cleaner, streamlined user experience
• Ability to export the most up-to-date and accurate inventory and computer population information to other systems via XML, as well as CSV

With these changes, the Absolute Customer Center is even easier to use, with access to new security and management features that provide Absolute customers with more ways to manage and secure their IT assets.

For more information on Absolute Software and its range of computer theft recovery, data protection and IT asset management solutions, please visit www.absolute.com

Back in December we announced that Absolute Software’s Computrace would now be built into the hardware level of select Lenovo ThinkPad T400 notebooks. These are the first notebooks to ship with support for Intel’s Anti-Theft Technology and Computrace built right in. We also posted a nice review that Intel’s Chris Hubbard did of using the Computrace product – how it works, why it’s good, and how easy the set-up is.

Now here is a silent video demo of Intel’s Anti-Theft Technology with Computrace:

The video will take you a few minutes to run through, but it essentially shows you how an IT Admin would set up the AT-p services including Computrace laptop monitoring and recovery services. The whole process can also be found detailed at the Intel Expert Center blog.

Absolute Software announced today that its customers can now use Google Maps, GPS and Wi-Fi to visually track their computers!

Absolute has added Wi-Fi geolocation tracking to its Computrace line of anti-theft and management products. Customers can now use Google Maps to see where their computers are in either GPS or in Wi-Fi triangulation information sent back from the laptops. IT managers can track all their computing assets on a single worldwide map.

Here’s a comparison of the service, the top with GPS capability and the bottom with both GPS and Wi-Fi capability:

This new capability makes recovery efforts more successful for Absolute Software which, in turn, reduces the loss and exposure that are the result of a data breach associated with lost computers.

“When used effectively, this intuitive tool can help them mitigate losses by enabling simple and timely identification of when an asset may have moved to unauthorized locations.” – John Livingston, CEO of Absolute Software

Since Wi-Fi is built into most laptop computers this becomes an efficient means of tracking computers. Computrace now uses all commercially-available tracking methodologies: IP tracing, global positioning system tracking and now Wi-Fi tracking.

Chris Hubbard over at Intel posted a review of Computrace by Absolute Software earlier this month. This review came on the heels of an announcement that Absolute Software’s Computrace product would be built into the hardware level of select Lenovo ThinkPad T400 notebooks, the first notebooks to ship with support for Intel’s Anti-Theft PC Protection and Computrace built right in.

Chris’ review of the product is quite thorough, from the “quick and painless” installation to how the product works. As Chris describes:

“When using Computrace, once a day your laptop will use the available internet connection to phone home to the Computrace servers on the internet. Under normal circumstances, the laptop will receive an “all clear” signal from the servers and disconnect until the following day. All this happens silently in the background without user intervention.”

Chris goes on to describe the process that is initiated if a laptop is marked as lost or stolen. When that laptop reports back in, after it’s been marked as missing, a sequence of pre-determined actions will take place. Depending on what is preferred, that could include deleting the sensitive data from the hard drive, tracking down the laptop and/or preventing the laptop from booting at all.

“When paired with disk encryption, this is a powerful countermeasure to laptop theft. If the data is protected by encryption and the notebook is unuseable because of the Intel Anti-theft technology, the laptop effectively has no value to anyone. With the LoJack capability, a stolen laptop actually becomes a liability since it could be telling the local authorities where the stolen laptop is.”

Chris continued to test the product, using a variety of tactics such as reporting it stolen, having it phone home, and entering incorrect passwords. As Chris hopes, the strong security countermeasures make the Lenovo T400 laptop series quite unattractive to most thieves. You can read more about his review here and can sign up to view a demo of Computrace here.

One of the tips in the Lifehacker article highlighted in the previous post was so relevant to mobile security that I thought it deserved a whole new post.

The tip was to ensure that you wipe the data off your smartphone – iPhone or BlackBerry – before you trade it in. Whether you’re donating it or selling it, or just giving it to a friend, it’s important that you take all of your data off of it.

iPhone – Erasing Data

If you have the latest stable version of software on your iPhone, the data can be wiped securely. If you are running software earlier than 2.0, there is a way to hack it to dump the data.

The steps to erase the data on iPhones running 2.0 or later versions of the OS are to go to:

Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings

BlackBerry – Erasing Data

On the BlackBerry, thanks to BBGeeks, incorrectly enter your password 10 times then enter the code “blackberry” to trigger a wipe OR go to:

Options > Security Options > General Settings > Click the trackwheel/trackball on the Password field > Select “Wipe Handheld” > Enter “blackberry” when prompted

Also, if you’ve been following along with this blog, you’ll know that Absolute Software is beta testing Computrace Mobile for the BlackBerry right now. This will enable you to do a remote delete of your BlackBerry data in the event that your phone is lost or stolen. Stay tuned for more news on that soon!!

Images: Apple & BlackBerry

As we announced about a month ago here on the blog and on Absolute.com, Absolute Software has been running a closed beta of its existing Computrace Mobile for the BlackBerry platform!

John Halamka, CIO for Caregroup, is one of our beta testers and he recently shared his experiences with the product on his blog, saying:

“Although the Absolute products are primarily encryption, tracking, and data protection systems, they are also a very cool geotracking system for Blackberry owners (with their consent).”

In addition to recognized benefits of tracking his BlackBerry, and wiping the data if it does go missing, John realized he could share the login for the Computrace Customer Care center with his family, so they’d always know where he was.

I had a chance to correspond briefly with John by email about his experience with the new service. John says that he’s never had a mobile device lost or stolen before, although had a close call when he left a Palm with personal information on an airplane. His current BlackBerry has contact information, no insecure corporate data, but the new Massachusetts Data Protection regulations have prompted an evaluation of products to encrypt / protect corporate mobile devices.

John Halamka was not a previous customer of Absolute Software, so this is his first experience using Computrace. He describes the installation process of the tracking agents to his MacBook and BlackBerry as “seamless”. You can read his full experience here.

Computrace Mobile is expected to be generally available for the BlackBerry for corporate customers in 2009. If you’re a journalist interested in doing a review, contact Absolute for a private demo.

Computrace Mobile currently is supported on all Windows Mobile 5 and 6 handheld devices including the HP iPAQ, HTC Touch, MOTO Q, Samsung BlackJack and Treo 750.

Absolute Software created a new video about its corporate products and services. The video gives you an overview of mobile computing and security, and how Absolute Software fits into your IT planning. It gives you insight into the recovery team and how Computrace gives you control over your IT assets.

In the time it took to watch that video, 3 laptops were stolen. Do you know where all your laptops are?

Ken Colburn (aka the Data Doctor) was on CNN a couple of weeks ago to give some simple advice on protecting your sensitive information if your computer is stolen. The most common mistakes people make that put data at risk on lost laptops, according to Ken, are: not set a password on the computer, auto-saving username and passwords, and leaving sensitive information unprotected by alternate passwords or encryption.

As you can see from the video below, Ken goes on to recommend software than can help make your computer more secure and/or recover it. He recommends LoJack for Laptops / Computrace, as well as other programs listed here.

Thanks Ken for the great coverage!

Also in the news: Microsoft will stop selling its Windows Live OneCare consumer security service and will re-release it as a free download by the end of 2009. They hope this will mean less malware. Speaking of malware, a new trojan came up a couple days ago that can send both Mac & PC users, even with patched software, to impostor websites. Ouch!