Computing platform security apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 7,352,283 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2004
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Deshpande, Nikhil M., Velhal, Ravindra V., Deshmukh, Jeetendra G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trieu; Van T.
• Application Number:
  US11/007,466
• Publication Number:
  US 20060132307A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,210 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.11, 340/539.13, 340/539.16, 340/539.17, 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/286.01, 340/286.06, 709/220, 709/221, 709/233, 713/1, 713/2, 717/175
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/002 for traffic control, mobile tracking, guidance, surveillance or anti-collision
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1418 Removal detected by failure in electrical connection between the appliance and a control centre, home control panel or a power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, may operate to receive status from an operating system (OS)-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at some time before executing an operating system.

Claims

1. An apparatus, including:

a device registration node to communicate with at least one operating system (OS)-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing an OS and to receive the geolocation information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the OS-independent module is adapted to alert the device registration node with the geolocation information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

an alert module coupled to the device registration node to communicate the OS-independent geolocation information to at least one of a selected person and a selected organization.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a registration module coupled to the device registration node to receive and store identification information associated with the at least one OS-independent module.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the identification information comprises at least one of an identification number associated with the OS-independent module, a primary location associated with the OS-independent module, at least one owner identification parameter associated with the OS-independent module, and at least one authority identification parameter associated with the OS-independent module.

6. An apparatus, including:

an operating system (OS)-independent module to couple to an OS, the OS-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing the OS.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the device comprises a mobile computing device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the mobile computing device comprises at least one of a hand-held computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, and a cellular telephone.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, further including:

a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag to be sensed to determine a distance of the OS-independent module from a selected location.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the RFID tag is sensed to determine a location of the OS-independent module relative to a grid.

11. The apparatus of claim 6, further including:

an accelerometer to determine movement of the OS-independent module.

12. A system, including:

an operating system (OS)-independent module to couple to an OS, the OS-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing the OS;

an omnidirectional antenna coupled to the OS-independent module; and

a device registration node to communicate with the OS-independent module to receive the OS-independent geolocation information.

13. The system of claim 12, further including:

a computing device coupled to the OS-independent module.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing device comprises at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 device, a general packet radio service (GPRS) device, a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, and a wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) device.

15. The system of claim 13, further including:

a data protection module coupled to the OS-independent module to perform at least one of disabling the computing device, password protecting selected data, and rendering the selected data unreadable.

16. A system, including:

an operating system (OS)-independent module to couple to an OS, the OS-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing the OS; and

an omnidirectional antenna coupled to the OS-independent module.

17. The system of claim 16, further including:

a device registration node to communicate with the OS-independent module to receive the OS-independent geolocation information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the OS-independent module is adapted to alert the device registration node with the geolocation information.

19. The system of claim 17, further including:

an alert module coupled to the device registration node to communicate the OS-independent geolocation information to at least one of a selected person and a selected organization.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein receiving the OS-independent geolocation information is responsive to a missing equipment report registered on the device registration node.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the missing equipment report includes identification information associated with at least one of an OS-independent module reported as lost and an OS-independent module reported as stolen.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein receiving the geolocation information is responsive to a command to determine at least one position of the OS-independent module.

23. A method, including:

receiving status at a device registration node from an operating system (OS)-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing an OS.

24. The method of claim 23, further including:

registering the OS-independent module with the device registration node.

25. The method of claim 23, further including:

receiving a missing equipment report at the device registration node.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the missing equipment report comprises an alarm associated with an OS-independent module state.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the missing equipment report comprises a notification from at least one of a selected person and a selected organization.

28. The method of claim 23, further including:

determining a geolocation position of the OS-independent module.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the status comprises a geolocation position of the OS-independent module.

30. The method of claim 23, further including:

alerting at least one of a selected person and a selected organization; and

providing the status to the selected person or to the selected organization.

31. An article including a machine-accessible medium having associated information, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

receiving status at a device registration node from at least one operating system (OS)-independent module capable of providing OS-independent geolocation information associated with a device to a network at a time before executing the OS.

32. The article of claim 31, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

periodically querying the at least one OS-independent module to determine the status.

33. The article of claim 31, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

rendering data stored in a storage subsystem coupled to a mobile computing device unreadable following a selected interval.