Electronic Device Security and Tracking System and Method

• US 20080060086A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Softex LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: Softex Incorporated
• Inventors: Patel, Mehul, Jain, Manoj, Tucker, Thomas, Raikar, Rayesh, Varghese, Elza, Dhanani, Kamal, Bhansali, Apurva, Dube, Shradha, Kapila, Ranjit, Rangarajan, Gayathri
• Granted Patent: US 8,516,235 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/572 Secure firmware programming, e.g. of basic input output system [BIOS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/082 using revocation of authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning

Abstract

A system and method for securing and tracking an electronic device. The system includes hardware, software and firmware components that cooperate to allow tracking, disabling, and other interaction with the stolen electronic device. The system includes an application component, non-viewable component and Basic Input/Output Subsystem (BIOS) component that are present on the electronic device. The BIOS component maintains the secured environment of the application and non-viewable components. If only the application component was provided, a simple low level format of the hard disk drive would remove the application and bypass the security features. The system implements an “application and BIOS” based solution to electronic device security.

Claims

1. A method for integrating a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) Read-Only-Memory (ROM) image, comprising:

opening a BIOS modification application;

opening a target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application; and

adding an electronic security and tracking system and method (ESTSM) ROM to the target BIOS binary.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening a BIOS editor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening a BIOS compiler.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening a BIOS interpreter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening a BIOS configuration utility.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing a BIOS image.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing a BIOS image, comprises:

opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing the BIOS image, wherein the at least one file representing the BIOS image includes a target .ROM file.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing a BIOS image, comprises:

opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing the BIOS image, wherein the at least one file representing the BIOS image includes a target .WPH file.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application comprises:

selecting a target file within the BIOS modification application.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

expanding an option ROM node within the BIOS modification application.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining if an option ROM is present under the option ROM node and if there is space in the target BIOS binary for an ESTSM ROM.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining if there are no option ROM present under the option ROM node.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding an electronic security and tracking system and method (ESTSM) ROM to the target BIOS binary comprises:

adding the ESTSM ROM to the target BIOS binary upon a clicking on an add button of a graphical user interface.

14. A system, comprising:

a non-viewable component;

an application component connected to the non-viewable component, said application component capable of communicating with the non-viewable component, wherein said application component executes within an operating system environment;

a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) component connected to the non-viewable component; and

a server system capable of communicating through a secure medium with the application component;

wherein the BIOS component is integrated into a target BIOS binary of an electronic device by a operations including

opening a BIOS modification application,

opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, and

adding an electronic security and tracking system and method (ESTSM) Read-Only Memory (ROM) to the target BIOS binary.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application comprises:

opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, wherein the target BIOS binary includes at least one file representing a BIOS image.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the opening the target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application comprises:

selecting a target file within the BIOS modification application.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the BIOS component is integrated into the target BIOS binary of an electronic device by operations including expanding an option ROM node within the BIOS modification application.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the BIOS component is integrated into the target BIOS binary of an electronic device by operations including determining if an option ROM is present under the option ROM node and if there is space in the target BIOS binary for an ESTSM ROM.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the BIOS component is integrated into the target BIOS binary of an electronic device by operations including determining if there are no option ROM present under the option ROM node.

20. A computer system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor operably coupleable to the memory to

open a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) modification application,

open a target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application, and

add an electronic security and tracking system and method (ESTSM) Read-Only Memory (ROM) to the target BIOS binary.

21. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations comprising:

opening a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) modification application;

opening a target BIOS binary within the BIOS modification application; and

adding an electronic security and tracking system and method (ESTSM) Read-Only Memory (ROM) to the target BIOS binary.