Many of the think pads also have hardware level security which can be enabled that prevents data access if the HD is swapped or changed as well as BIOS level passwords that even IT can not reset. If it's not your Thinkpad and your office is serious about security, then I'd leave it alone. You could cause an issue that is not eaisly fixed and with the get tough approach some companies are taking with ork software and harware, it's not worth your job.