Lenovo wants to keep your data safe

Michelle Thatcher Former Senior Associate Editor, Laptops

Tech expert Michelle Thatcher grew up surrounded by gadgets and sustained by Tex-Mex cuisine. Life in two major cities--first Chicago, then San Francisco--broadened her culinary horizons beyond meat and cheese, and she's since enjoyed nearly a decade of wining, dining, and cooking up and down the California coast. Though her gadget lust remains, the practicalities of her small kitchen dictate that single-function geegaws never stay around for long.

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Michelle Thatcher

Oct. 17, 2006 10:16 a.m. PT

You've read the reports: Someone steals a laptop loaded with personal data. Maybe you've even received a letter explaining that your records were on a stolen piece of computer equipment. Attribute it to media hype if you want, but protecting data on ever-more-mobile hardware has to be a concern to businesses and their clients.

And this is why Lenovo announced plans to load select ThinkPads with software that works in conjunction with the laptop's fingerprint reader to encrypt the data on the hard drive. According to the company, the software meets encryption standards for U.S. government systems. (Take note, ING, Deloitte, EDS, Aetna, HP, Fidelity, the State of Florida, and others whose data has been exposed because of hardware theft.)

Meanwhile, Lenovo has also announced plans to update all ThinkPad lines with the option of Intel Core 2 Duo processors; at this point the manufacturer's Web site is showing the new processors only on T-series and R-series models. We're expecting review units in CNET Labs soon and will let you know how they run--if we can get past the security measures.

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