Acer Customers Now Have Enhanced Computer Security with Computrace by Absolute Software and Intel Anti-Theft Technology
Vancouver, Canada: June 23, 2009 – Absolute® Software Corporation (TSX: ABT) announced today the availability of Computrace® and Intel® Anti-Theft Technology for Acer TravelMate 6493 and 6593 notebooks.
The Acer TravelMate 6493 and 6593 notebooks will ship with Computrace technology from Absolute Software built into the BIOS firmware and Intel® Centrino® 2 Processors featuring Intel® Anti-Theft Technology. Absolute and Acer customers can now have support for tamper-resistant computer security with the patented Computrace technology embedded during Acer’s manufacturing process. With Computrace, customers can also activate the lock-down capabilities of Intel Anti-Theft Technology.
Computrace subscriptions for all models of Acer computers are available immediately though Absolute Software and its network of partner resellers.
"Customers have been able to use Computrace and Computrace LoJack for Laptops products on Acer computers for many years. Absolute and Acer have collaborated to embed Absolute’s technology in the firmware for additional tamper-resistance," said John Livingston, Chairman and CEO of Absolute. "With this new collaboration between Acer, Intel and Absolute, Acer is giving their customers the best solutions available to track, manage and protect their mobile computers."
With the Acer TravelMate 6493 and 6593 notebooks, Computrace and Intel Anti-Theft Technology, IT administrators can:
- Take advantage of the full range of Computrace IT asset management capabilities.
- Manage and track notebooks to more quickly identify if they go missing.
- Remotely delete data from missing notebooks or at end-of-lease or life.
- Recover stolen notebooks with the services of the Absolute Theft Recovery Team.
- Using the Intel Anti-Theft Technology capabilities, disable a notebook remotely or when preset criteria are met.
“With the increase of business laptop sales, theft management has become an important issue for the rapidly growing mobile workforce,” said George Thangadurai, director of Strategic Planning and general manager, Intel Anti-theft Services, Intel Mobile Platforms Group. “Our collaboration with Acer and Absolute is bringing customers new worldwide scalable hardware-based security solutions using Intel Anti-Theft Technology to deter theft.”
How Computrace Solutions Work
The Computrace® Agent that powers Absolute Software solutions is embedded in the firmware of select Acer computers right at the factory or it can be installed by the customer.* Embedded in the firmware of a computer for enhanced tamper-resistance, the stealthy Computrace Agent is capable of surviving operating system re-installations, as well as hard-drive reformats, replacements and re-imaging. The Agent can be activated by customers when they purchase a subscription with terms ranging from one to four years.
The Agent regularly contacts the Absolute Monitoring Center servers – sending location and IT asset management information that is accessible via the Absolute Customer Center web portal. Customers log in to the Absolute Customer Center to access that information, manage their IT asset population, run reports, remotely delete data and plot the location of their computers and mobile devices on a map.
If a computer is stolen, the Absolute Theft Recovery Team can use location information sent by the computer and forensically mine it using a variety of procedures including key captures, registry scanning, file scanning, geolocation, and other investigative techniques to determine who has the computer and how it is being used. Absolute then works with local law enforcement to help recover the computer.
Intel Anti-Theft Technology allows IT administrators to enable a timer that disables the notebook if it does not check in with the Absolute Monitoring Center within a set period of time. Alternatively, if IT learns that a notebook has gone missing, they can remotely lock the computer via the Absolute Customer Center. Once IT is satisfied that the notebook is safe and in their control, they can rapidly reactivate the computer using a reactivation token given to them by Absolute.
Availability
Firmware support for Computrace and hardware support for Intel Anti-Theft Technology will be available globally on the Acer TravelMate 6493 and 6593 notebooks through www.acer.com beginning summer 2009.
* For a complete list of firmware-supported computers, see www.absolute.com/firmware.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and http://blogs.intel.com.