Intel Moves to Lock Down Business PCs

SAN FRANCISCO—Intel Corp. announced a new effort to use security and computing performance to sell a new generation of microprocessor chips.

The Silicon Valley company said a new technology, dubbed Authenticate, is built into new versions of its Core line of chips that are aimed at business PCs. Intel said the technology can make it much easier for companies to require that up to four safeguards be in place before users can log onto their computer, a technique called multifactor authentication, rather than a single factor such as a password.

For example, a company could require any combination of a password, a fingerprint scan or the presence nearby of an authorized employee smartphone that a PC could sense using Bluetooth technology, Intel said. It could also require users to enter a set of numbers on a PC touch screen, thwarting potential threats from malicious software that monitors their typing on keyboards, the company said.

A key feature of the Authenticate technology is that the identifying elements and company security policies aren't stored on a computer's disk drive or another traditional storage device, where they would be vulnerable to a variety of attacks on a PC's operating system or other software, Intel said. Instead, the factors are stored on a special protected zone on the microprocessor.

Intel noted that, apart from companies' growing security worries, users dislike remembering and managing passwords. "From their perspective, this is a huge win," said Tom Garrison, an Intel vice president, during a briefing in San Francisco to announce the new chips.

The technology works with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7 operating systems. Intel said it is letting companies test Authenticate and provide feedback on how it works before announcing its general availability.

Intel's move is the latest in a series of solutions offered by technology companies in hopes of stemming the seemingly intractable problem of computer attacks, which frequently are linked to organized criminals or intelligence agencies. However, Intel is in an unusually influential position to help popularize solutions because it supplies chips that provide computing power to more than 90% of all PCs.

The chip maker for years has offered hardware features that work alongside security software as part of a 10-year-old effort called vPro. Those have included ways to establish that a PC, or portions of it, haven't been modified.

In contrast, Intel's latest effort primarily targets the issue of stolen passwords, a major cause of security breaches. Users frequently are duped into giving up those credentials when they visit a booby-trapped website or open an email that contains malware that can hunt for passwords.

Only by removing passwords does the problem go away, said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

"No technology is unbreakable, said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at Technalysis Research. "But this takes security to a whole new level," he said.

Other people briefed on Intel's technology say it will take a long time to have an impact. For one thing, businesses for decades have built their security practices around managing passwords.

"They are just not ready," said Maribel Lopez, founder of the market research firm Lopez Research.

Intel said its new chips, the sixth generation of its Core family, offer up to 2.5 times the computing performance of a five-year-old PC. It didn't provide a comparison with recent chips.

Intel's news on Tuesday coincided with the kickoff of a new television advertising campaign designed to highlight priorities of Brian Krzanich, who became chief executive in May 2013 and has pushed the company to move beyond PC chips. The new ads attempt to show how the company, known for its "Intel Inside" slogan, also affects the outside world, as shown by selected artists, dancers, musicians and clothes designers, the company said. Intel didn't disclose the cost of the campaign.

Write to Don Clark at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2016 17:15 ET (22:15 GMT)

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