Earlier quoted context omitted.
Might not be the best think to take with you when you board a plane.
Do they check the internals of a laptop's hard drive nowadays? :-)
chemical scans probably will detect it.
Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also sell devices called Data Security Protocol Switches (DSPS) which completely prevent your method from working. "A Signal Proximity (SP) option means that any registered AutothysisDSP computer hard drive that leaves the vicinity of the DSPS signal will automatically self-destruct. This protects against theft and someone walking out the room with a computer. Likewise if a jamming of the DSPS signal is tried in…
Ok, now I wonder: couldn't you harass people using this technology by jamming the DSPS signal until they give up on it and choose something else? I bet that these hard drives are costly enough so that it becomes a problem fast.
The people who use these devices fall under two broad categories: those who operate within the law and those who operate outside of it. In the former case, any jamming can be solved by a call to the FCC to the effect of: "Someone has been operating a jammer near our office. We think it might be a van parked nearby with the license plate 123456." In the latter case, any jamming could mean that the authorities have caught on to them and that they should start destroying all physical evidence. The drive would serve as a canary, so to speak.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#331. Use a GSM yammer to prevent self-destruction by SMS. 2. Steal the laptop and get out of the range of the token quickly to prevent self-destruction via the token. I could not find how drive and token communicate but you can probably jam it, too, for example Bluetooth. 3. Keep the battery charged to prevent self-destruction by low battery level and set up a femto cell - without connection to the real GSM net, of cou…
> GSM Starvation Period – You can specify a period of time in hours that if the Drive cannot access a GSM service within this time period then the Drive will self-destruct. This protects against the removal of the GSM service in an attempt to circumvent the security features of the Drive. you forgot one, and it makes jamming more difficult.
His #3 point solves that with a femto-cell to provide a fake gsm signal.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#34I've enjoyed the idea of self-destructing data for awhile now, but it always leads to the possibility of DoS attacks against my own data. This smartphone app and token, how do they communicate with the drive? Does it use cryptographic signatures to make sure that it's actually my phone talking to the device and not someone else, or just a passcode? Does the drive send out an alert if it receives more than X SMS messa…
but it always leads to the possibility of DoS attacks against my own data.
It depends on the nature of the data you want to store: there is some data which you would be concerned with letting others get access to but whose existence is more important, and other data where you absolutely must not let others get access to, even if it means that no one (including you) can. This drive is designed for the latter case.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> GSM Starvation Period – You can specify a period of time in hours that if the Drive cannot access a GSM service within this time period then the Drive will self-destruct. This protects against the removal of the GSM service in an attempt to circumvent the security features of the Drive. you forgot one, and it makes jamming more difficult.
His #3 point solves that with a femto-cell to provide a fake gsm signal.
Not really- I believe the phone home feature requires a signed key. Its not just listening for a "destruct" but also a time-based, signed "nothing to report sir, continue"
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#36Does anyone have any insights on how the actual physical destruction takes place? I would assume it is a chemical triggered by a shorted fuse?
A quick glance at the laws in California make it a felony to simply have in your possession "any sealed device containing dry ice or other chemically reactive material that is assembled for the purpose of causing an explosion." The definitions for other types of destructive devices are specific to scale, but this part is not.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#37Of course, if the drive uses internal full disk encryption, all you have to do to fully destroy the data (or at least make it inaccessible for a long, long time) is get rid of 16 bytes of AES key. I doubt there is no way to securely implement this without dramatic explosions...
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#38Does anyone have any insights on how the actual physical destruction takes place? I would assume it is a chemical triggered by a shorted fuse? A quick glance at the laws in California make it a felony to simply have in your possession "any sealed device containing dry ice or other chemically reactive material that is assembled for the purpose of causing an explosion." The definitions for other types of destructive de…
Perhaps not an explosion within the meaning of applicable California statutes.
Looking at the pix that show chip fragmentation, I don't see evidence of reactive chemistry. No melted edges, no deposition of combustion products, no missing material that would suggest propulsive transport incident to a micro explosion caused by detonation of a tiny blob of, for example, lead styphnate or some other primer-like compound.
Exploding wires are an old technology, and don't involve "...chemically reactive material...". Think old-fashioned fuses, but with faster dynamics.
Maybe they have an on-board supercap that they dump into a buried trace, producing a brief high temperature copper plasma and a shock wave that breaks the chip?
Interesting technology, would like to know how they do the physical destruction.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#39I'd like to know if the self-destruct mechanism still functions at very low temperatures. Given that one known attack on data in RAM is to flash freeze it (Cold Boot Attack) it is natural to think about lowering the device temperature to the point where chemical reactions wouldn't and mechanical devices would jam.
Re: Autothysis SSD drives impede unauthorised access
#40So basically a solenoid held open by a battery?