Intel's VPro Technology

On Monday, August 27th, Intel rolled out it’s new Vpro security measures. The new processor and chipset bundle, dubbed the Weybridge package, are set to be released today offering corporate businesses a better solution for information security. They also plan to release the Vpro bundle for notebooks early in the first quarter of ’08.

But what does the Vpro package offer the corporations that decide to pick it up? Intel claims that network managers will be able to send patches and security updates throughout the network automatically with this bundle. They also boast that these machines will be able to be managed remotely and instructed to perform certain tasks without much additional software. The Vpro also uses a form of virtualization to run certain security programs in a more secure area on the hard drive. There are time based filters in place to help detect attacks and patterns of any persons who may be trying to attack the network. What stood out the most to me was that instead of being stored in software, network security is given a space on certain pieces of the hardware to be stored. Since it is being stored on the hardware, it becomes much more difficult for an attacker to compromise this information.

Intel does not intend to phase out other security programs, but has designed these programs to work with some of the fairly common consumer/corporate security tools. HP and Dell have already joined forces with Intel to help bring this technology out to the general public, but a date was not given as to when we should expect it. In the meantime, rest a bit easier knowing that Intel is thinking ahead and attempting to protect your data in a more effective manner.