Electronic device disabling system and method

• US 8,137,410 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Softex LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Softex Incorporated
• Inventors: Rangarajan, Gayathri, Patel, Mehul Ramjibhai, Raikar, Rayesh Kashinath, Dhanani, Kamal Mansukhlal, Kapila, Ranjit, Varghese, Elza Abraham, Tucker, Thomas David, Bhansali, Apurva Mahendrakumar, Jain, Manoj Kumar, Dube, Shradha
• Primary Examiner(s): Simitoski, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tolentino, Roderick
• Application Number:
  US12/166,783
• Publication Number:
  US 20080276326A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 726/34, 726/35, 379 37- 51, 340287-309
• 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 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 securing and disabling an electronic device, comprising:

in an electronic device, automatically determining whether a hidden partition in the electronic device is valid, wherein the electronic device comprises a disk drive, wherein the disk drive comprises the hidden partition and an application component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device, and wherein the hidden partition comprises a non-viewable component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the hidden partition is valid, automatically loading the non-viewable component and transferring control to the non-viewable component; and

performing, with the non-viewable component, operations comprising;

automatically determining whether the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the application component did not operate correctly during last power-up of the electronic device, automatically restoring the application component from a backup fileset; and

automatically placing the electronic device under control of power on self test (POST) to proceed with powering-up the electronic device in response to a determination that the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the effort includes an effort to delete a portion of the application component.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the effort includes an effort to bypass operation of the application component.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

automatically disabling the electronic device in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached; and

automatically prompting for an activation password in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the number of device power-ups is five.

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

8. An apparatus comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium; and

instructions stored in the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

automatically determining whether a hidden partition in the electronic device is valid, wherein the electronic device comprises a disk drive, wherein the disk drive comprises the hidden partition and an application component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device, and wherein the hidden partition comprises a non-viewable component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the hidden partition is valid, automatically loading the non-viewable component and transferring control to the non-viewable component; and

performing, with the non-viewable component, operations comprising;

automatically determining whether the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the application component did not operate correctly during last power-up of the electronic device, automatically restoring the application component from a backup fileset; and

automatically placing the electronic device under control of power on self test (POST) to proceed with powering-up the electronic device in response to a determination that the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the operations comprise:

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

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the effort includes an effort to delete a portion of the application component.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the effort includes an effort to bypass operation of the application component.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the operations comprise:

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

automatically disabling the electronic device in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached; and

automatically prompting for an activation password in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the number of device power-ups is five.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein powering-up the electronic device includes allowing the electronic device to boot an operating system.

15. A method for securing an electronic device, comprising:

in an electronic device, automatically determining whether a hidden partition in the electronic device is valid, wherein the electronic device comprises a disk drive and a basic input/output system (BIOS) component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device, wherein the disk drive comprises the hidden partition and an application component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device, and wherein the hidden partition comprises a non-viewable component associated with tracking and locating the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the hidden partition is valid, automatically loading the BIOS component and transferring control to the BIOS component; and

performing, with the BIOS component, operations comprising;

automatically determining whether the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device;

in response to a determination that the application component did not operate correctly during last power-up of the electronic device, automatically restoring the application component from a backup fileset; and

automatically placing the electronic device under control of power on self test (POST) to proceed with powering-up the device in response to a determination that the application component operated correctly during last power-up of the electronic device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

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

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

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

automatically disabling the electronic device in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached; and

automatically prompting for an activation password in response to a determination that the number of device power-ups has been reached.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein powering-up the electronic device includes allowing the electronic device to boot an operating system.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the effort includes an effort to delete a portion of the application component.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the effort includes an effort to bypass operation of the application component.