Kill Switch - the ability to render devices non-operational to
prevent theft - has become a hot topic nowadays. The ability to remotely
destroy data of the device lost or stolen has been available for quite
some time now, but Kill switch not only remotely destroy the devices’
data but also the device itself, making it useless for the thieves.
Just last week, Google and Microsoft signed an agreement with the New York Attorney General to add "kill switches" to the upcoming versions of Android and Windows Phone devices, as a part of the "Secure our Smartphones" initiative.
But now, the largest chip manufacturer, Intel will soon going to provide
Kill Switches for your laptops as well. The company has been working on
a project called Wireless Credential Exchange (WCE) with several
partners in an effort to bring Kill switch to other mobile devices,
including laptops.
The project uses RFID technology to provision, track and monitor devices
such as laptops, hospital equipment and other devices, including a Kill
Switch option for the lost or stolen devices.
You all might have heard about the RFID technology, which has been
available for more than fifty years. RFID, stands for Radio-frequency
identification, is the wireless non-contact use of Radio-Frequency
electromagnetic fields to transfer signals, for the purposes of
automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects.
The Wireless Credential Exchange (WCE) uses the Monza RFID chips
developed by Impinj, industry-standard RFID readers created by
Technology Solutions UK and a cloud-based data repository and dashboard
created by Burnside Digital called IPTrak software.
The IPTrak software that ties all components together, allows Intel SoC
to read and write data such as unique IDs, error logs, permissions, and
device configuration to the Monza chip, even if the system is powered
off.
Devices can be scanned using a RFID reader and data from the IPTrak
software stored in a cloud-based database and accessed via IPTrak mobile
device apps for Windows, iOS, or Android applications using Bluetooth
technology.
For example, It has ability to disable a device prior to shipping and
then only reactivating the device once it reaches its final destination.
This would render a device useless if it were lost or stolen during
shipment.
In addition to this, devices returned to a factory or repair center
could be scanned, error logs read, and the device routed to the
appropriate technicians without even opening the box.
Two years back, Intel added ‘Kill Switch’ to its Sandy Bridge processors naming them Anti-Theft 3.0,
using which the processor can be disabled even if the computer has no
Internet connection or isn't even turned on, over a 3G network, so that
if computer is lost or stolen, it can be shut down remotely.
Posted Courtesy of Hacker News Website
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