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BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

buskill.in

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Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#61

Post by FDSGSG »

thargor90 wrote: post #27
martin_a wrote: post #18

Maybe I'm "spoiled" because in Germany there's a need to publish an imprint on all websites that are somehow "commercial" (having ads on it would be enough), but this is highly "dubious". No contact information (as in "who runs this?") is provided on the site. Privacy policy is not GDPR compliant (no contact information provided), no names, nothing. This might be fine for a personal blog, but for doing business this…

Yes, we are spoiled. I'm not sure it's even possible to have a valid contract with an unknown party...

"Operator of buskill.in" does not seem like an unknown party?

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#62

Post by martin_a »

thargor90 wrote: post #27
martin_a wrote: post #18

Maybe I'm "spoiled" because in Germany there's a need to publish an imprint on all websites that are somehow "commercial" (having ads on it would be enough), but this is highly "dubious". No contact information (as in "who runs this?") is provided on the site. Privacy policy is not GDPR compliant (no contact information provided), no names, nothing. This might be fine for a personal blog, but for doing business this…

Yes, we are spoiled. I'm not sure it's even possible to have a valid contract with an unknown party...

I don't think it is. Neither in B2B and especially not in B2C. Although I think the consequences would mostly be worse for the customer, not the seller.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#63

Post by _flux »

throwaway12232 wrote: post #13
_flux wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can grant expensive (though I don't know for how cheap I could make such a sellable project with free worldwide shipping, while also making profit), but what is comically impractical about this? It's not like the default functionality is to nuke the device from the orbit on disconnect. You could make one for yourself cheaper, though, if you have the know-how. Though a basic face detection-based screen lock could be…

Only the cable by itself cost $59.00. It's the same USB magnetic cable that you can buy in many shops for $2. > but what is comically impractical about this? That you have to carry such contraption around and find a place to tie it to. If you have to spend more than $30 for a custom device you can detect if a laptop is being moved away from a table in many better ways.

Personally I have only found cables with relatively weak magnetic power. Where does one find these strong ones, in particular for prices like you mention? It doesn't seem to be a well-advertised property, so it's difficult to tell if they are actually strong ot not :/.

The $59 price still includes worldwide shipping.

> That you have to carry such contraption around and find a place to tie it to.

I mean you are already carrying a laptop, and probably a charger with cables, so carrying a magnetic cable doesn't seem a big stretch. You would put it to the same bag with your other laptop-related accesories.

It is also quite popular to wear pants with belt loops, which would seem suitable for tying this one. Granted dresses and skirts have these less commonly; even then perhaps one could use a belt. For sportswear I don't have a good suggestion.

I notice you refer to these "better ways" yet you don't enumerate any. At least I wouldn't consider accelerometer and radio-based solutions proper alternatives to this (unless using proper latency-based distance measurement, I wonder if this truly can be implemented for less than $30). The camera solution I proposed might be realistic one, but it eats battery.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#64

Post by martin_a »

FDSGSG wrote: post #61
thargor90 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we are spoiled. I'm not sure it's even possible to have a valid contract with an unknown party...

"Operator of buskill.in" does not seem like an unknown party?

It is. What's the postal address of the "operator of buskill.in" so I can file claims with him?

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#65

Post by dagw »

XorNot wrote: post #58
shultays wrote: post #56

BusKill can trigger your laptop to lock, shutdown, or self-destruct if it's physically separated from you. I understand lock and shutdown but self-destruct? Really? Your laptop/data is one bump away from destroying itself?

Reminds me of a coworker who had their iPhone set to "wipe after 10 bad pins". Took about 2 days before their 5 year old happily typed the wrong pin 10 times and wiped it.

My old job had wipe after 3 (or maybe it was 5) bad pins within N minutes as the required security setting for company phones. The thing I learnt from it is that wiping your phone actually isn't that big a deal and if you've set it up right you can pretty quickly be back up and running.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#66

Post by buu700 »

salex89 wrote: post #51

Or, maybe just add back the Kensington Security Slot and attach the laptop to yourself/desk with a strong wire and not have your laptop yanked in the first place. I understand the first part of my idea is dead in the water, we hardly get additional ports, let alone a slot hardly anyone will use. But I would like to see a way to retrofit a KSS on a laptop.

It would be interesting if you could combine the two ideas. Physically secure the laptop to the table, but also lock / shut down / wipe the drive in the event that someone cuts through the wire.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#67

Post by MarkusWandel »

shultays wrote: post #56

BusKill can trigger your laptop to lock, shutdown, or self-destruct if it's physically separated from you. I understand lock and shutdown but self-destruct? Really? Your laptop/data is one bump away from destroying itself?

There are any number of ways to do this, but one is a LUKS encrypted file system and "self destruct" is wiping out the LUKS header and halting. Only the backup of the LUKS header (not with you at the time!) will restore the data.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#68

Post by stickfigure »

amoshi wrote: post #16
Ensorceled wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a USB kill switch in this case could (would?) have escalated the arrest method to something more violent.

Yep, I think so too, it wouldn't have protected him. Whoever was in charge of the operation would've noticed and identified this killswitch, and prepared appropriately. The suspect would be incapacitated as a matter of priority to prevent him from activating it.

Honestly, that sounds a little too "CSI". If the lanyard is attached to a wrist, the chance that someone could be suddenly incapacitated in such a way to avoid a jerky movement that breaks the connection is pretty small. "Knock them unconscious" is a TV trope.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#69

Post by V__ »

LinuxBender wrote: post #40

There are mentions in this thread about false positives, risk of data loss, others. This made me think of Star Trek's use of a self destruct phrase. Obviously their method is too slow, but you could have a "duress" phrase and a "all clear" phrase. User-Defined Phrase: "Please dont kill me", activates "duress" mode. - A daemon listens in the background for a phrase of your choice. When detected, your laptop makes a so…

I always thought that a lock screen with two passwords would be an interesting idea. Say the BusKill locks your system and sends a request to a server. If you don't enter the correct password to abort the script within a few seconds, it will run on your server, which sends a distress mail/call to emergency contacts, revoke all ssh keys/passwords etc.

If however the distress password gets entered, the script still runs, but the system unlocks into a virtual pc or another account which is not suspicious.

Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops

#70

Post by tiahura »

Ensorceled wrote: post #5
throwaway12232 wrote: post #2

This is shockingly expensive and comically impractical to use.

$89 doesn't seem that expensive. It's just as impractical as money belts, key chain alarms, Tiles(tm) I mean, too impractical for me, but there is definitely a market for it.

How is Tile impractical?
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