Laptops with smart card slots

mloc

I recently bought a business grade laptop that has a built in smart card reader.

Is there some way I can utilize this feature, perhaps setting the laptop to boot only with a smart card authentication? I don't have a smart card and don't have any idea where to get one, but it would be a useful feature for me.

Martyr

i think some bios support this..like 'SystemLock' on fujitsu laptops...
Its pretty futile feature if someone has access to the disk physically, say if your laptop is stolen.

check out truecrypt if you want to protect access to your files on disk.

if you just want to use smartcard anyway, i'd say there is some option in bios.

deRanged

Windows can also authenticate with the smart card - so you can't log in without one.
It looks cool, but it's a pita.

mloc

deRanged wrote:

Windows can also authenticate with the smart card

how does one go about setting this up? is there anywhere that i can actually get a smart card to use with it?

basically its so i can leave my laptop in a semi secure place and not have to worry about passwords when i leave it unattended, that is, take my smart card with me when i go on a break but not have to take my laptop. the risk of theft is small but id like to increase the security, even if the deterrent is only slight.

Martyr

there is info on microsofts website here

i was thinking, when you leave your computer, you would have to logout anyway, so why not just use [Lock Computer] after pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL?

it is your laptop, & assuming you have administrator rights, you have privilege to lock computer when unattended.

deRanged

Personally I'd go with just locking the screen like Average Joe said.
That's what I do with all my machines - you soon get into the habit of hitting
ctrl atl delete when you stand up, and it doesn't take any time.

I have been tempted in the past to get a usb security token -
something like this, but I'd have to go right into the security of it before I trusted it.

I don't know where you'd get a smart card, I used to work in a place that wrote software that worked with them. I had about a dozen various makes and models for testing, and without exception they were a total pain.
The only really cool one was a stupidly expensive (30k punts) HSM from some crowd in Canada, but even that had problems. It used cards that were like PCMIA cards. but I digress, lock screen all the way.

parliament

Yes, on most newer laptops you have the option to encrypt the BIOS boot password on a removable disk. If you boot up the laptop without the removable disk you get prompted for the BIOS boot password, if you have the disk inserted it will auto logon and complete the boot cycle, its basically a substitute.

Capt'n Midnight

mice that have thumbprint biometric ?