I thought the self-destruct wouldn't run a script, but would actually be a physical attack on the laptop like the usb-killer v2 from a few years back.
BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
71–80 of 339 posts
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#72Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'm getting closer and closer to this reality... iphones are basically there, with icloud backup. Have been trying to get less attached to any OS installs, and be fast at building up from a fresh install. Seems hard to even trust your own desktop after a while.
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#74Am I the only one to think that if someone is close enough to physically yank your computer out of your hands they are also physically close enough to beat you with a wrench if you lock the computer containing what they are after? https://xkcd.com/538/
Probably most of the time but maybe not when the adversery wants to be covert.
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#75Or, 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.
The point is to lock your laptop when the government is coming to bust you. This device would have kept Ross Ulbricht out of jail.
>This device would have kept Ross Ulbricht out of jail.
This device would had made a difference in the initial library-swipe confrontation, but would had definitely not kept Ross out of jail by any means (even that day)
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#76This is very cool to see. When I discovered and subsequently purchased my framework back in October I had an idea for a homebrewed, 3D printed expansion card, where plugging it in/activating it immediately executes dban (or some other, better alternative).
Or you could always just carry an enormously strong electromagnet on you :-)
Very keen on picking one of these up purely for the novelty, price isn't too bad. Although I think the demographic who would and could actually benefit from a failsafe for having their laptop physically yanked away from them is quite small.
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#77Good to have if you run a dark net marketplace or a political disident ring from public libraries.
An additional refinement is to autolock the device if a certain personal key combo (ex. Shit - vol up - vol down) is not pressed every few minutes in response to an audible click. If not unlocked in a minute or so with a complex password, the device halts to a disk encrypted state and unpowered ram, minimizing the window attackers have to recover RAM state.
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#78Might have protected Ross Ulbricht, but he’s an edge case. Anyone had their laptop yanked away while using it?
This was my immediate thought as well. Oh Ross, if only you closed that damn laptop lid (and didn't incriminate yourself blatantly on stack overflow)
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#79Might have protected Ross Ulbricht, but he’s an edge case. Anyone had their laptop yanked away while using it?
Actually we know it wouldn't.
The agents arresting him did in such a way that they prevented him from touching his laptop (by creating a diversion), because they were feared that such a protection might exist.
Re: BusKill – A USB kill cord for laptops
#80Feel like this something similar can be accomplished for Macs using AirTags/Apple Watch proximity to do specific actions via Shortcuts App, instead of just locking/erasing remotely using 'Find My'.
I seem to remember Windows 10 has a similar feature. You can pair your phone with it, and it supposedly locks automatically when the phone goes away. I've never seen it work, though...