PC Data Security Blog

Dell’s Kill Switch

In a recent CNBC.com interview, when confronted with the scenario of a business laptop filled with sensitive data being accidentally left in a taxicab, Michael Dell explained the need for businesses to have access to a mechanism to “remotely kill the data on the device (laptop) if the device is lost”.  He went on to report that Dell offers such “Mission: Impossible” capability.  One can infer from this that Dell offers an Internet-based kill switch that allows the business administrator to remotely wipe all data if it ever again connects to the Internet.  That’s a great start but what if the crook doesn’t let it connect?  Laptops need be able to protect themselves by having behavior and time-based triggers that can take self-protective actions even if they never connect to a server again. And, of course, the data needs to be encrypted as well.  This is the security that PC makers should really offer.

A kill switch is nice but Mission: Impossible’s Mr. Phelps never connected the tape recorder to anything like the Internet – it simply self destroyed with a timer.

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