IBM ThinkPad security is great with the BIOS Password

IBM uses a secured EEPROM chip soldered on the motherboard of each laptop they manufacture. And they will set a specific password for each computer. According to IBM, when you buy the laptop, they will provide the ‘BIOS password’ or ‘Supervisor Password’ to you. That particular password termed as ‘Supervisor Password’ is the BIOS password on all IBM Lenovo laptops. Even if you are the owner of a laptop if you lose your BIOS password, you need to take your laptop along with the proof of purchase to an IBM vendor and he will replace your mother board if it is under warranty or will charge you a fee for replacement.

So regarding IBM ThinkPad Laptops’ security, the advantage is that without knowing the BIOS password even if somebody tries to physically remove the original hard disk supplied along with the laptop and replace it with a new blank hard disk, the hard disk just gets detected and they can’t use a bootable CD to install a new operating system in the new hard disk. Generally for security the CD drive is disabled from the Boot sequence option by default, and if you need to install an OS using a bootable CD, you must compulsorily go to the BIOS settings by entering the BIOS password and then enable the boot with CD option.

So this option can be changed only if you know the BIOS or Supervisor Password preset by IBM and this is independent of the Operating system like Windows XP Administrator password. And in case both the BIOS or Supervisor password and the Windows XP Administrator passwords are set then your laptop becomes much more secured and then if some thief steals it, he can only break the laptop so that none can use it. They can, by no means, get the BIOS password from IBM.

Of course, if we search on the internet in ‘Google Search’ for cracking or hacking or deleting the IBM ThinkPad’s BIOS passwords using software or by using hardware, we can find quite a considerable number of methods but all of these are black-hat techniques with always a risk of losing Warranty by IBM. Practically no software exists for free for hacking the IBM BIOS passwords. Even the Backdoor passwords mentioned on so many sites will not work for IBM ThinkPad / Lenovo Laptops. You can refer to IBM’s site http://www.ibm.com for more information.