NEC distributor, Matsema, has begun talks with South African training institutions about introducing a concept developed in Europe that makes mobile computers secure enough to be loaned out to learners.
An educational authority in France approached NEC to develop a cost-effective, distinctive, tamper-proof and secure notebook computer for high school learners.
"The result was a clearly branded and uniquely coloured notebook incorporating various security features," says Annick Reyngoudt, NEC international marketing senior manager. "There are built-in security features aimed at reducing theft and increasing recoverability."
"Being Centrino-based, these notebooks have up to five hours battery life, which makes them particularly well suited to the local environment," says Pierre Bester, Matsema CEO.
Over 30 000 of the customised NEC notebooks have been supplied to high school learners in France in protective backpacks. "Only 0.2% of the initial consignment have been stolen, but over half of those were recovered due to the security features," says Nicolas Pichon, NEC international services and solutions senior manager.
In addition to the high visibility of the notebooks, Reyngoudt says the security features include tamper-proof screws, warning notices below barcoding stickers, encrypted data on the hard drive, and NEC`s Safe Boot and Safe BIOS software.
Safe Boot ensures the notebooks do not boot up before a user name and password have been authenticated. Also, if the notebook does not connect to its host network for a period of 30 days, the system is locked. Safe BIOS is a further level of security that will lock the computer if any attempt is made to replace the encrypted hard drive.
"Further security enhancements are in development," says Pichon. "Future security options are likely to include biometric fingerprint authentication."
Reyngoudt says although originally developed for educational purposes, NEC is able to customise notebooks with any branding to any level of security for business applications.
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