Electronic Device Disabling System and Method

• US 20080276326A1
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Softex LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Softex Incorporated
• Inventors: Dube, Shradha, Raikar, Rayesh Kashinath, Kapila, Ranjit, Bhansali, Apurva Mahendrakumar, Jain, Manoj Kumar, Rangarajan, Gayathri, Tucker, Thomas David, Dhanani, Kamal Mansukhlal, Patel, Mehul Ramjibhai, Varghese, Elza Abraham
• Granted Patent: US 8,137,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/36
• 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 method for tracking, locating and disabling an electronic device. A method includes checking if an application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device; and placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up.

Claims

1. A method for tracking, locating and disabling an electronic device including a nonviewable component, comprising:

checking if an application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device; and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

checking if a hidden partition, said hidden partition storing the nonviewable component, is valid;

loading the nonviewable component;

transferring control to the nonviewable component; and

performing with the nonviewable component the operations of

checking if the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device, and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the operations of checking if the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device, and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up,

are performed by a BIOS component.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an application component failure if an effort is made to prevent operation of the application component.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the effort includes an effort to delete a portion of the application component.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the effort includes an effort to bypass operation of the application component.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting that the electronic device will be disabled within a number of device power-ups unless corrective action is taken if the application component did not operate correctly during last device power-up;

disabling the electronic device if the number of device power-ups has been reached; and

prompting for an activation password if the number of device power-ups has been reached.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising restoring the application component from a backup fileset if the application component did not operate correctly during last device power-up.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of device power-ups is five.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein powering-up the device includes allowing the device to boot an operating system.

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

checking if an application component operated correctly during last power-up of an electronic device; and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

checking if a hidden partition, said hidden partition storing a nonviewable component, is valid;

loading the nonviewable component; and

performing with the nonviewable component the operations of

checking if the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device, and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations of

checking if the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the device, and

placing the device under control of power on self test to proceed with powering-up the device if the application component operated correctly during last device power-up,

are performed by a BIOS component.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

generating an application component failure if an effort is made to prevent operation of the application component.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the effort includes an effort to delete a portion of the application component.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the effort includes an effort to bypass operation of the application component.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

prompting that the electronic device will be disabled within a number of device power-ups unless corrective action is taken if the application component did not operate correctly during last device power-up;

disabling the electronic device if the number of device power-ups has been reached; and

prompting for an activation password if the number of device power-ups has been reached.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising restoring the application component from a backup fileset if the application component did not operate correctly during last device power-up.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the number of device power-ups is five.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein powering-up the device includes allowing the device to boot an operating system.