HP's new EliteBook models will protect against threats no other defense can handle

By Kevin Parrish Published December 14, 2016

Alex Cho, vice president and general manager of HP’s Commercial PC division, talked in a recent blog about the latest security innovations in its “Elite” notebooks for the commercial sector. These devices promise to provide a deep level of security to not only protect the hardware, but the end-user’s identity and data. That line of defense starts on the BIOS level thanks to HP’s Sure Start technology.

The third generation of HP Sure Start will protect the data that controls the BIOS configuration and policy. If Sure Start detects that something has tampered with the BIOS, it will restore it to its original state along with all custom settings and policies provided by IT. This adds to the heavy security measures Windows 10 already provides for the enterprise sector, Cho wrote.

Recommended Videos

This tech is now in its third generation, protecting Elite notebooks even before the operating system loads. The BIOS manages the hardware and software environment of the notebook so that the operating system and its installed software runs optimally. This is an attractive attack vector for hackers who want to infiltrate a desktop or notebook on the lowest level possible.

“HP Sure Start Gen3 will help prevent such attacks by automatically detecting tampering attempts with the BIOS (both in pre-boot and run-time), notifying the user of a problem and restoring the BIOS to its original pristine condition from a copy stored on a dedicated computer chip. In that sense, it’s self-healing,” Cho said.

The third generation of the HP Sure Start feature will be made available on the HP EliteBook 800 G4 family of laptops when they hit the market in the near future.

Cho also said that HP and Intel teamed up to develop HP Multi-Factor Authenticate, which will rely on Intel’s seventh-generation Core processors and Intel Authenticate technology. This platform will make hacking into Elite notebooks difficult given that it relies on a combination of credentials, such as biometrics, smartcards, and PIN numbers.

HP’s fourth-generation (G4) EliteBook 800 family of laptops are currently listed as “coming soon.”

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…

Computing

MSI’s powerful Steam Deck rival gets a global release and higher price tag

MSI Claw 8 connected to a monitor

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ Polar Tempest model first launched in April before being removed from MSI's website, but has now returned with a dedicated product listing and a July 15 release date for the United States. This powerful handheld leaves the Steam Deck in the dust in most regards, but has been notably hard to purchase due to high demand and a limited initial production run.

The latest run of the Polar Tempest Edition comes with 2TB of storage and is priced at $999, versus the original Sandstorm model with 1TB of storage and an $899 price tag. In addition to a US release, fans have spotted listings in Germany, which suggest Europe will also get another release this summer. The only other difference is the white front panels (hence the Polar moniker).

Computing

New free-to-play Steam games: Here’s how to play them

Pixel art fruit from Nanika Game Online.

If you do a quick search for free-to-play games on Steam, you get over 6,700 matches -- but that's not enough free games for Valve. The company adds more and more free titles all the time, and this month we've got yet another fresh batch.

Covering genres such as multiplayer, horror, first-person combat, open-world adventure, and 3D platformers, Steam has added well over 20 games since the start of May. Here are some of the best-looking ones:

Computing

WWDC 2025 could be the least exciting Apple event in years — and I think that’s a good thing

Craig Federighi introducing macOS Sonoma at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2023.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is just under one month away. Normally, this event is a time for Apple to showcase all the software updates it’s been working on over the last year, which usually means tons of exciting new features across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and more.

This year, though, there are likely to be far fewer significant updates. Sure, we’ll see a few changes here and there with systems like macOS 16 and iOS 19 expected to get a smattering of new features.