The AP is reporting that Ericsson has developed a 3G modem that can deactivate an entire computer with a remote “kill pill”. Why in the fuck would they ever want to do that, you ask? Because wireless carriers are starting to sell laptops (especially netbooks) subsidized like phones, giving them away for free in exchange for a long-term contract.
The carriers are worried that customers might sign up for a contract, then stop paying their monthly service fee but continue to use the laptops. There’s already a contract in place that covers this, so I don’t see the point of trying to shut down the account remotely.
That said, it looks like these will become standard issue on most laptops soon, subsidized or not. IT departments will be able to use them to remotely nuke stolen laptops. And the modem could still operate while the laptop was off, allowing for low-power email alerts and inbound VOIP calls.
But it’ll still be a good idea to know how to disable this. Just in case you don’t want to trust the phone company to never accidentally turn off your computer.
grr… get your hands off my stuff!
Does anyone besides me find this frightening?
As far as being able to hack this “feature” or to disable it, it might be a challenge… depending on how far into the system it is buried.
In this case, it is done to protect a business model. (Putting on tinfoil hat) How long til it becomes a standard part of the build?
You guys missed the most hilarious scenario: write a worm that kills these machines (after trying to spread to others, of course).
Oh gee, a PC with a 3G modem & the removable SIM card thats needed to make the 3G (& thus the kill switch) work.
Unless the operators force the BIOS to only function with their SIM, I don’t see how they can stop me from using it even if I no longer pay for service. The integrated 3G modem will no longer work once I remove the SIM, but so what?
Wait till the first round of liability suits hits for lost data/work due to an incorrectly killed laptop. Then things will change in a hurry. This option will also be unacceptable to government/military customers, as it opens another avenue of damaging attack on their systems and productivity. Get another Conficker-like worm that triggers these things, and you could likely take down a noticeable number of govn’t machines in preparation for another attack from another vector.