IBM boosts ThinkPad's security

IBM boosts ThinkPad's security

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

Take a close look at the accompanying picture.

Hopefully you can see it. It's a tiny scanner on the right
part of the palmrest, just above the IBM logo. It is the only
thing that visually differentiates the T42 from the T40 that I
have been using for more than a year now.

Of course, there are other differences under the hood. The
processor I found on this Centrino notebook, which was lent to me
by IBM Indonesia, was an Intel Pentium M 1.7 MHz. It is 400 MHz
faster than my T40. It now also supports Gigabit Ethernet.

The rest is basically the same. There are two PC-Card slots,
two USB slots, an S-Video jack, a parallel port (for those who
have not got rid of their old printers), an infrared port, a
video port for an external display or a digital projector, a
pleasing 14.1-inch screen and Wi-Fi. Oops, T42 now supports
802.11g in addition to 802.11b.

Other amenities include the ThinkLight, TrackPoint and
UltraNav pointing device. The keyboard, battery and, of course,
the color are unchanged.

Security getting more sophisticated
We all know how important passwords are. We use passwords for
authentication so that other people cannot access our bank
accounts, our confidential data, our private correspondence, etc.

However, as my daughter has just found out, passwords can be
stolen. Suddenly she was denied access to all of her e-mail
accounts. Apparently, one of her friends had watched her as she
typed in her user name and password, and then changed the latter
without her knowledge.

So, passwords -- despite all the good things that they do for
you -- can create headaches. You have to memorize them. In some
organizations, people have to change their passwords on a regular
basis. The joke is that some of them get so fed up with the task
that they simply write down the passwords on Post-it notes and
then stick them to the bezel of their computer monitors.

Then there was the smartcard. You could not access your
computer unless you inserted your smart card into the machine's
card reader. This was implemented in a number of notebooks. The
first notebook with a smartcard-based authentication system that
I tested was Siemens-Nixdorf's Scenic Mobile 800. Acer later
launched its notebook models with a built-in smartcard reader.
Other notebook vendors soon followed suit.

The trouble with smartcards is that you may lose them, leave
them at home or expose them to a very strong magnetic field that
wipes all the data stored inside them. And, on top of it all,
they still require you to enter your passwords.

Biometrics is the solution that is gaining popularity. Each of
us has unique fingerprints, unique palm lines and unique retina
shapes. We carry these unique ID features with us. The
fingerprint authentication that IBM has implemented in the
ThinkPad T42 is a great example of what biometrics can do.

Swipe your finger
Each time you turn on the T42, it will ask you to swipe your
finger over the tiny scanner. The reader does a good job. Most of
the time, if I move my finger vertically across the scanner, the
scan compares well with the image of my fingerprint that I stored
during the setup.

By the way, the software asks you to store the print from at
least two different fingers when you first set it up. That is a
good idea, as otherwise you would not be able to use the notebook
if your finger happened to be wrapped in a Band-Aid.

What if you cannot use your fingers at all? What if, for
instance, you have to ask someone at home to start the notebook
and read an important note for you over the phone while you are
working in the office?

All he will have to do is press Ctrl-Alt-Del. The system will
ask for a password instead of a finger swipe. You can give the
password over the phone.

Gory as it may sound, a severed finger may not be usable. The
reason is that the fingerprint sensor also measures the
electrical characteristics in your fingers.

The fingerprint authentication system is a great security
measure. The scanner and the software are reliable. Although I
did not exercise great care in storing my fingerprint, it has
never locked me out. It did not let any unauthorized person in,
either.

All in all, IBM ThinkPad T42 is another great notebook. My
only wish is that IBM would put the two USB 2.0 ports a little
bit farther away from each other.

As I have experienced in my T40, it is difficult to plug a
thumb drive and an external mouse at the same time because the
ports are too close to each other.

My solution was to buy a USB hub, which cost me Rp 250,000 --
not a bad investment, as it was a hub with four USB ports.