Re: Encrypting Harddisk?

From: Nico Kadel-Garcia (nkadel@bellatlantic.net)
Date: 06/29/02 

From: "Nico Kadel-Garcia" <nkadel@bellatlantic.net>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2002 14:00:12 GMT

"Jedi Master" <gunsmith@no.spam.gr> wrote in message
news:afjl0d$3et$1@usenet.otenet.gr...
> On Sat, 29 Jun 2002 06:10:58 +0300, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>
> > It's quite possible. The user's machine can phone home for the key. This
> > procedure can be made as easy or difficult as you wish, requiring
> > arbitrary levels of validation.
> >
>
> I don't think that this would work either. A good progrmmer (and reverse
> engineerer) could isolate the portion of the program which whould phone
> somewhere to get the key, and use it with a couple of modifications in
> order to get the key to his harddisk. I don't think that it is too
> difficult for someone who knows ....
>
> And as the other idea, what about this scenario :
> Lets say that i am the customer.
>
> I try to copy the program but i need the key which is stored in my
> motherboards eeprom. I try to open the case but the light detector gets
> light and flushes the eeprom with a bare bootstrap to allow remote
> recovery. I detect the light sensor (I am not an idiot, and security by
> obscurity is NOT security as previously mentioned) and I stick a piece of
> black paper in front of the detector. I start up the machine which will
> get its OS back remotely possibly via phone. Then i get eeprom in my hand
> having the OS inside it.

Any service interruption in the webcam coverage, motion, power interruption,
etc., should lead to disk wipe if power ifs available. An on-board small UPS
should provide a few seconds of power to allow, at a minimum, the corruption
of the partition tables and superblocks.

And a fast phone call from my homebase should occur immediately.

If you want to get wacko about it, use the really *old* aluminum disk packs
with iron oxide magnetic coating and cause a head crash. The head scrapes
the disk, finely spraying the case with finely powdered, fresh,
non-oxide-coated aluminum and rust, and ignites it.

Can you say "thermite"? Can you say "ignites the other disks in the tray"?
Can you say "China syndrome"?

Yes, this used to happen. It was an excellent reason fot the big panic
switches and halon extinquishers....

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Encrypting Harddisk?
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