The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 20, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 06, 1999
John S. Thompson, Boulder, CO (US);
Melinda M. Thompson, Boulder, CO (US);
Avaya Technology Corp., Basking Ridge, NJ (US);
Abstract
The BIOS device ( ) or some other secure store of a portable computer (PC ) or other valuable device stores a password-based security program ( ), an encrypted password ( ), and an encryption key ( ). When the PC is booted, the security program executes first and prompts the user for a password, encrypts it with the stored key, and compares it with the stored password. If the passwords do not match, boot is aborted and the PC is disabled. Only if the passwords do match is boot continued and use of the PC enabled. If this security measure is advertised, theft of the PC is deterred because of the difficulty of accessing or bypassing the password and the security program in the BIOS device. The encrypted password is also registered with a remote trusted certificate authority (TCA ) or is stored on a local external storage device ( ). To establish or change the password, a communication connection is established from the PC to the TCA or storage device. If a password already exists in the PC, it is compared against the password stored by the TCA or the storage device. If they match, or if a password does not yet exist, the user is prompted for a new password, which is then encrypted and stored in both the BIOS device and the TCA or storage device. The password is also available for retrieval from the TCA or storage device in case the user forgets it.