Lenovo is working with Phoenix on a BIOS that will let you disable a ThinkPad notebook PC by sending it an SMS text message. The feature should be available early next year, reports TG Daily. The story says:
The lockdown will happen immediately if a notebook is turned on or, when it is turned off, the next time the system signs on to a cellular network. To reactivate the disabled PC, a user needs to enter a pre-set passcode created during notebook startup.
Since not many people have notebooks with built in Sims, it would be more useful if you could disable a notebook over the internet. Maybe you can….
It would also be more useful if every notebook PC had this sort of feature, as it would tend to discourage notebook theft. However, bear in mind that it doesn't protect your data, because someone can always remove the hard drive and read it with a different PC -- unless the data is encrypted.
The article also doesn't say whether the SMS simply triggers a BIOS password. There are ways around those....
