Wednesday 28 October 2009

Computer and data recovery

In a way this is a bit of a follow on from a previous post. There I was looking at how Police BlackBerry smartphone, if lost, can be wiped and disabled by a central administrator instantly.

I read an article about four laptops stolen from ITN staff: One of the thefts occurred at an employee’s house in Bracknell. Returning home, they found their house had been burgled and the company laptop had been stolen. But as soon as the unauthorised user connected to the Internet, Computrace sent an alert to the Absolute Monitoring Centre, allowing the device to be tracked and located. The laptop was found in Bracknell and returned to the organisation.

This reminded me of the system put in place by our local council. It also uses Computrace software that is embedded in the BIOS firmware of a range of computers. Bracknell Forest Borough Council have made use of the software’s remote delete functionality and Absolute’s recovery process. It has been able to deactivate and remove data from three decommissioned laptops as well as recover a stolen laptop.

Not so much a case of big brother watching you, but watching out for you. It is good that people can rest assured that any data that the council holds is held securely.








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