Fujitsu Siemens notebooks to get kill pill

FUD Zilla reports Fujitsu Siemens will add more (optional) security features to its notebooks to protect confidential data in case of theft. The notebooks will get a feature to track the stolen machine in real-time, and also a "kill pill" to remotely block the system:

With DataProtect, FSC says that confidential data on a laptop can be protected, because if a machine is stolen, the support desk can access the system and save the confidential data centrally in the system or, if necessary, completely delete the data.

The help desk can also render the hardware useless via a so-called "kill pill" although this software does not mean there will be a low level disk format to wipe the data. It just means that after the system is blocked, the BIOS expects a password to do anything new.

If the device is returned to the customer after the kill pill has been activated, users can remove the protection and boot the system again using a special password.