Intel Lays Hacker Trap
Intel wants to lay a virtual trap for hackers. The chip maker, which launched its vPro brand for business desktops April 24, aims to increase PC security by stepping up the vPro machines' abilities to proactively guard against malware.
The company will employ virtualization technology—which can partition a PC to run different types of software simultaneously—to set up a new type of security checkpoint inside each machine.
That checkpoint, which is expected to be the first of its kind for client PCs when it arrives in vPro Professional PCs in the third quarter, can guard a machine by monitoring network traffic into it and intervening if it exhibits behavior patterns consistent with an infection.
"We had to come up with some better, more proactive, more intelligent [and] more automated ways to defend our systems," said Gregory Bryant, general manager for the Digital Office Platforms Group at Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif.
Setting up the security checkpoint involves using an Intel-written virtualization program to create a separate security partition that stands between the network and the PC's OS, applications and data to stop malware before it reaches the more sensitive areas, Bryant said.
