Lockheed deal brings tracking headquarters into states

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0226/web-comp-02-27-01.asp

BY Paula Shaki Trimble
02/27/2001

A new partnership between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Absolute Software
Corp. will allow government users in the United States to continue
tracking their laptop computers, but from a location closer to home.

Under the agreement announced earlier this month, Lockheed Martin will
create a Monitoring Center at its Lockheed Martin Mission Systems
secure facility in Gaithersburg, Md., making it the first facility in
the United States for users of the Canadian software-makers Computrace
product. Computrace allows information technology administrators to
track laptops in the field and recover them if they are lost or
stolen.

Lockheed Martin and Absolute announced a licensing agreement in
September under which Lockheed would resell Computrace in the United
States. Existing users of the Computrace system are monitored by a
facility at Absolute Softwares Vancouver, British Columbia
headquarters.

Lockheed Martin will market the system as a fee-based service for $50
a year per unit with quantity discounts for government buyers and will
add new features in the future, said Jon Watada, Lockheed Martin
program manager for computer security products and services.

After Computrace is installed on a laptop or remote PCs hard drive,
the software-tracking agent will silently transmit computer asset data
over a phone line or local area network to the Lockheed Martin
Monitoring Center on a scheduled basis. Lockheed Martins center will
start operating by July, Watada said.

System status information including the Internet Provider address,
user name, e-mail address, operating system, hard drive size,
processor type and speed, and the originating phone number even if it
is an unlisted or blocked number is stored in a secure, online
database that customers can view via Web-based reports. If a computer
is reported missing, it is flagged in the database.

The next time the computer makes an Internet or phone connection,
operators at the monitoring center report its location and can work
with law enforcement to recover the missing laptop. The software is
difficult to detect and the speaker and lights are deactivated when it
dials out, Watada said. In addition, if someone tries to repartition
the hard drive, the software will stay behind, he said.

The software also serves as an asset management tool to help IT
administrators keep track of how many computers are used remotely and
when they are returned.

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