Re: For Laptops

From: Moe Trin (ibuprofin_at_painkiller.example.tld)
Date: 08/29/05 

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:12:56 -0500

In the Usenet newsgroup alt.computer.security, in article
<43111FA5.8070804@wapda.com>, Poster 60 wrote:

>Plato wrote:
>> Poster 60 wrote:
>
>>>If you have important data on your laptop or if you travel a lot with
>>>one you may want to consider this:

[STRONG aroma of snake-oil detected]

  Domain Name: LOJACKFORLAPTOPS.COM
  Registrant:
  Juma, Amin
     Absolute Software Corp.
     111 Dunsmuir St.
     Suite 800
     Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 6A3
     CA
  Record created on 15-Mar-2005.

I wonder if these con-artists got permission from LoJack Corporation in
Westwood, Massachusetts (USA) to use the name - probably not

>> Wont do any good once C: is wiped out by the theifs.

or if the lap-doggy is connected behind a firewall, or doesn't have a
modem... yeah - there are a few problems. But it _looks_ like it might
do something... not sure what.

    Web Results 1 - 10 of about 2,740,000 for disk encryption. (0.23
   seconds)

    Web Results 1 - 10 of about 832,000 for computer recovery theft. (0.28
   seconds)

(The first two links are to the same company absolute.com, as is the pop-up
ad)

    Web Results 1 - 10 of about 299,000 for trace stolen computer. (0.25
   seconds)

>As noted on the learn more page:
> Our patented software is hidden and virtually tamperproof, surviving
>most hard drive reformats and operating system reinstallations.

[bash ]# /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=536870912
[bash ]#

Your one Terabyte hard disk is now all zeros, INCLUDING the MBR. The
program that did that is a part of several O/S - I'd use Toms RootNBoot,
which is the whole deal on a single 3.5 inch floppy. On a 32 bit
computer, that command scales to a eight Terabyte max (expandable to
32 Terabyte with several keystrokes), which is likely to be larger than
your hard drive for the next two or three years.

If you have important data on your disk ENCRYPT THE WHOLE FREAKIN' DISK
using any of the better applications you can find above. Make sure that
you use a strong passphrase and that this passphrase is NOT stored on
the computer. Even if your lap doggy is recovered after being stolen,
how do you know that the "secret data" you have on the disk (the credit
card numbers, the passwords to that Pr0n site, what-ever) hasn't been
copied. (Is that a "Duh" moment you just had?) If you can't figure that
out, you probably should not be trusted with anything as complicated as
a digital watch, much less a computer.

] System Requirements
] * Windows XP
] * Internet Connection and/or Hayes-compatible modem
] * Internet Explorer 6 and above

Doesn't support other versions of windoze, much less any other operating
systems. Requires Intersnot Exploiter - thanks, but none of my users
are so st00pid as to trust software with back doors and exploits out the
whazoo.

        Old guy

Relevant Pages

  • Re: For Laptops
    ... >>most hard drive reformats and operating system reinstallations. ... > Your one Terabyte hard disk is now all zeros, ... > If you have important data on your disk ENCRYPT THE WHOLE FREAKIN' DISK ... > you use a strong passphrase and that this passphrase is NOT stored on ...
    (alt.computer.security)
  • Re: How I know Im getting old
    ... >> There's a terabyte disk drive sitting on my desk. ... I suspect my memory is failing me. ... and most of that was disk drives. ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: How I know Im getting old
    ... When I started in the industry, a terabyte of disk occupied the ... First hard disk I ever fitted (well assisted in fitting - it was ... Almost the entire ground floor of the building, ... I got a similar feeling the first time I held a megabyte of RAM in ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: Ontape to Disk
    ... over 1 terabyte from disk may not work. ... heard of specific issues related to restoring a 2 terabyte database ... Our company does something similar with Informix 11 on an IBM AIX ...
    (comp.databases.informix)
  • Re: On the Recent PGP and Truecrypt Posting
    ... changing the passphrase would lock out prior users. ... Clearly a users with a backup copy of an encrypted disk for which they ... clear that real world users actually understand the need to re-encrypt ... You will also also see the architecture extend to some *very* cool storage encryption very soon. ...
    (Bugtraq)