Location-Based Encryption 239
davidwr writes "Eweek reports Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has a new way to prevent theft of company secrets on stolen laptops: 'Wozniak offered a peek into his vision for the company on Ziff Davis Media's Security Virtual Tradeshow, where he introduced "wOz Location-Based Encryption," an application that uses GPS tracking within a wireless hub to encrypt and decrypt sensitive data for large businesses.' Today's encryption is good enough but I do like the tracking capability. Imagine your laptop screaming 'I'm being stolen! I'm being stolen!' and paging security as the janitor walks out the door with it."
British intelligence and self-destructo laptops (Score:5, Informative)
Thinkpads and RFID (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not totally secure? (Score:5, Informative)
> has a weak signal somehow. I don't really get all the details...
> but it works so I don't complain.
Well a GPS receiver has about 8-12 channels with which to look for the satellites. If it knows roughly where you are, then it can use that information, together with stored almanac data (info relating to the orbital positions of the satellites over time) in order to better guess *which* satellites it should try locking on to. It basically speeds up the process of getting the all important 'first fix'. If you didn't tell it where it was, it would simply take longer to get the fix - but it would still get there eventually.
I must admit, I wasn't too impressed when I received my first GPS and the very first question it asked me when I turned it on is "Please select the location of this device using the map below". I was like, "huh, aren't you supposed to tell me that?!".
"Unplug / get rid of the battery" (Score:4, Informative)
Also one should note that in most cases, when someones steals a laptop, it is for the laptop itself, and they couldn't care less for the data on it...as long as they can download the corresponding drivers later on...
One the laptop get sold, it'll suffer a quick reinstall. and the security dongle will become a nice high tech keychain 8)
+ This system assumes I have a physical access to the machine...
If I have physical access to the machine (usually you find them plugged into the network, and no screensaver password...) all I have to do is either install a quick soft from the net or from the cd/usb key I have with me...
Keylogger/bot/zombie/spyware/remote desktop... I can do whatever I want...and your security is breached...
GPS indoors? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Stop! (Score:4, Informative)
Generally speaking the theives are coworkers, with sticky fingers. But usually it's people -- dressed nicely -- who just walk in off the street, looking like they belong, and picking something up and quietly taking off.
We've had a fair bit of the latter where I work.