Remotely Disable Your Laptop with a Text Message

Finally, a laptop company who understands the importance of the ability to remotely disable your computer when it is stolen.  We’ve all heard the various newslines where some hapless government or bank employee has had his laptop stolen, along with 200,000 social security numbers the employee wasn’t supposed to have on the computer in the first place.  But what about the mobile lawyer who has confidential and sensitive client material on his laptop?  What is the lawyer supposed to do when his laptop is stolen?

Lenovo has a solution.  In the upcoming months, they will release a BIOS update for their Montevina laptops which will install “Constant Secure Remote Disable”. This will allow the owners of these laptops to pair up to ten telephones to the CSRD software, which will shutdown the laptop and encrypt the data on it, once it receives a specified text message from one of those ten verified telephones.

The best part? Lenovo is offering this for free! I have to say, it is one of the few times I’m jealous of a PC laptop. Now why can’t a third-party developer come up with this kind of solution for all laptop computers?