LivePC Engine – a safe fingertip PC platform

moka5 unveiled the LivePC Engine, which allows consumers to carry several virtual computers on their USB fingertip drive or iPod and run them on any Windows PC without any installation. For the first time, consumers can carry their personal Linux and Windows computers, all on a USB stick.

Above and beyond mobility, the LivePC Engine makes computing with a fingertip drive easy and secure. The LivePC Engine streams virtual PCs to the USB drives, keeps the PCs live with automatic security patches and software updates while backing up the user’s data. The engine can also lock down the LivePCs so accidentally installed malware vanishes upon a reboot. Moreover, the LivePC Engine isolates the guest LivePCs from the host computer, so errors and malware on the guest cannot corrupt the host. For example, a guest LivePC cannot crash the host computer or install any viruses on it.

“Many mobility solutions today tend to further escalate the potential security risk in computing,” said Dan Boneh, Stanford University professor and founder of Voltage Security. “moka5 is the only mobility company that actually makes computing more secure than before.”

Companies can manage their worker’s home-based computers by distributing LivePCs to employees. Road warriors can carry LivePCs with confidential data on an encrypted fingertip drive. Hardware disasters can be recovered by streaming LivePCs onto any working PC and software crashes can be recovered with a LivePC reboot. Students can stream university-provided educational LivePCs onto a USB drive in a single click. Examples of the MIT Athena computing environment and the Stanford Linux environment for students can be found in the public LivePC library available on the company web site.