Bid to out-Fox laptop thieves

PERTH-based wireless networking and internet security company. Fox IT believes it has the answer to the wave of laptop theft sweeping commercial districts and government offices.

Fox IT manufactures mobile computer rooms, a fully secure metal cabinet housing eight to 32 laptops.

The company was formed in 1999 to primarily service the internet security sector.

Earlier this year the Department of Education asked them for a solution to the increasing need for more flexible and security of computer facilities in schools.

Fox IT’s R&D team developed the MCR over the following eight months which costs from $6750.

“All it has to do is save two lap tops from being stolen and it has paid for itself,” Fox IT’s managing director, Glen Polk-Smith, said

Based on a similar American model, the MCR is wheeled into a classroom and the laptops handed out to the students. Using Lucent Wireless LAN technology all the laptops are networked together to the lecturer and connected to the Internet. At the end of the lesson the laptops are replaced in the MCR, locked away and the cabinet plugged into the power mains to recharge the laptops.

“That is where the similarities with the American model effectively end ,” Mr Polk-Smith said.

“We felt that to provide a mobile computer room in the fullest sense, we needed to come up with a product that would answer any concerns from parents, teachers, lecturers and companies using the MCR”

To that end the Fox IT has integrated into the unit: Watchguard Firewall Security, URL screening, Trend Micros Internet virus protection, a compact fax, photocopier, scanner and printer, an IP Camera, data projector, mains connection with surge protector for re-charging 32 laptops at once, a ghost server for automatic laptop re-configuration, an 18GB mirrored hard drive.

Future optional extras will include a motorised model and the ability to connect the MCR security system to the clients security monitoring company.