BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop • Hacker News Board

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#171

Post by 0kl » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:43 AM UTC

fnord77 wrote: post #121

Ross Ulbricht had his laptop snatched by an undercover FBI agent while he was using it. This kill cord might have saved him some grief.

Better opsec would have saved him some grief as well.

Before even touching on his habitual use of coffee shops near his residence to run the Silk Road...

> The connection was made by linking the username "altoid", used during Silk Road's early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname "altoid", asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained his full name.

By the time the FBI was watching him and had connected his name to I don’t think there’s a lot that he could have done to avoid arrest.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#172

Post by piracy1 » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:43 AM UTC

Reventlov wrote: post #4

Archive link because the website is down: http://web.archive.org/web/20200102140351/https://tech.micha... I was expecting a "kill switch" destroying the computer, but that's just a thing that switch off your laptop when unplugged. I guess you could also do this with bluetooth, for example.

You could get similar outcomes to that if you used FDE and had it power off the machine fully. But then also your cat might ruin your day with one step :purplegirlshrug:

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#173

Post by ColanR » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:45 AM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #170

It appears breakaway mag USB-A connectors are pretty cheap: https://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Breaksafe-Magnetic-Breakaway-... From tidbits in this thread, it sounds like a Veracrypt hidden volume with a distress passphrase, plus a fairly simple dead-man script wouldn't be hard to set up. Something like: kill sensitive processes, drop caches, wipe memory, then panic the kernel.

I checked amazon earlier, and it looks like this thread may have put those things out of stock. Guess a lot of people like the idea!

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#174

Post by mikeryan » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:50 AM UTC

geocrasher wrote: post #61

overcast wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not pronounced "of", it's more like "ev", exactly like the contraction of words it's made up of. Would have.

In my household I'm the English nerd, although I have no degree behind it. I'd correct my wife when she wrote "would of" but then I listened closer when she talked: She wasn't saying "would've" she was saying "would of". That's when I gave up. There are a million other reasons to love my wife, and her proper use of 'would've' wasn't one of them to begin with :)

Does your wife actually pronounce these differently? Small sample size but as far as I can tell I pronounce these identically. (CA - native speaker)

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#175

Post by 0kl » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:50 AM UTC

abstractbarista wrote: post #114

dotBen wrote: post #108

A man just died in Oakland today trying to recover his laptop that was snatched from him in a Starbucks. http://nypost.com/2020/01/02/man-dies-after-trying-to-stop-t... Definitely don't go running after your stolen laptop, let it go.

I'd definitely give chase. To me, it is worth dying for. Not because of the laptop, but out of principle for vigorously fighting these ridiculous crimes. We all need to collectively fight back against crime or it will be normal (as it is now).

I’m just assuming the above is not in good faith, but for anyone else that might be persuaded:

You being killed by a criminal over an iPhone or laptop is not going to change anything. Fund your police, vote to change laws enough that they’re spending their time on things that are relevant, and if you’re honestly willing to die for the rule of law, become a police officer.

Otherwise your body will be one more on the list of “people that died for no reason.” It’s not tough, righteous, or whatever else to die for no reason - and even if it were, if you’re going to make a stand and sacrifice your life, make it over something more than a laptop.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#176

Post by whatactuallywat » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 12:53 AM UTC

jotm wrote: post #39

I guess I'll share in this thread. ---1--- I have a OnePlus 6T with the stock ROM exclusively for my British phone number. On the 25th of December, someone from Canada logged into the GMail account used on that phone, from a OnePlus 3T. The password was one randomly generated in KeePass (all of them are except for useless websites). They managed to change the password to the account, but seemingly nothing else, so th…

Why are you under the impression that accessing your KP database is guaranteed to alert you. I can't imagine how that could possibly be true without the master key being stored in some service running somewhere and you're notified when it's used. Which, well, would explain how your key was compromised. Otherwise it seems highly misleading to assume that no email = no compromise.

Doesn't really matter though, it would've been mitigated by not keeping the KP database decrypted at rest or by using 2FA. Both of which are SOP for hardware token users.

For real, at this point if you don't have a yubi/nitrokey on your keychain, I assume you just don't care about actual account security.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#177

Post by ineedasername » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 1:01 AM UTC

abstractbarista wrote: post #114

dotBen wrote: post #108

A man just died in Oakland today trying to recover his laptop that was snatched from him in a Starbucks. http://nypost.com/2020/01/02/man-dies-after-trying-to-stop-t... Definitely don't go running after your stolen laptop, let it go.

I'd definitely give chase. To me, it is worth dying for. Not because of the laptop, but out of principle for vigorously fighting these ridiculous crimes. We all need to collectively fight back against crime or it will be normal (as it is now).

I'm not sure what makes laptop theft any more ridiculous than another crime, but "crime is bad and it should stop" isn't really an ideal that's advanced by getting shot or stabbed and killed.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#178

Post by war1025 » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 1:06 AM UTC

ShakataGaNai wrote: post #76

savingGrace wrote: post #53

Another solution would be to just remove the battery and plug the laptop in. While this removes the portability, it is still an alternative solution.

Maybe a decade or so ago this would be a good answer. But unless you're one of those ThinkPad people who are still pulling for the X220 to make a come back.... A majority of modern laptops don't have user removable batteries. Yes, they could still be removed in some cases, but its often not for the feint of heart and not something many people would want to undertake.

Is it really the majority? Or just on macbooks and the high end lines like that? I didn't think my laptops were that old (3-5 years) and they all have removable batteries.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#179

Post by mikeyouse » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 1:12 AM UTC

0kl wrote: post #171

fnord77 wrote: post #121

Ross Ulbricht had his laptop snatched by an undercover FBI agent while he was using it. This kill cord might have saved him some grief.

Better opsec would have saved him some grief as well. Before even touching on his habitual use of coffee shops near his residence to run the Silk Road... > The connection was made by linking the username "altoid", used during Silk Road's early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname "altoid", asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained hi…

Aside from the much better idea of, you know, not keeping a journal of all of your incredibly illegal activities and attempted hits - this may have actually prevented the government from accessing said journal. He was definitely going to be busted in either case but it could've shaved some years off his eventual sentence.

Re: BusKill: A kill cord for your laptop

#180

Post by CaptainMarvel » Fri, Jan 03, 2020, 1:14 AM UTC

jccalhoun wrote: post #51

I will sometimes go to the university library to do some work and I'm always amazed at people who will go to the restroom or something and leave their laptop sitting there without a lock or even logged out. I always use a kensington lock and lock my screen whenever I have to leave my laptop. If I had a macbook I would be taking it with me. I know the locks won't stop someone who really wants to steal it but with so m…

What do you attach the other end of the kensington lock to?