P
[email protected]
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
| [email protected] wrote:
|> This is an amazing device:
|>
|> http://www.wiebetech.com/products/HotPlug.php
|>
|
|
| So how long have you worked for that company?
Never have. I'm actually trying to figure out ways to defeat it.
1. Use a 240 volt circuit. The 240 volt version might not be in the USA.
2. Use 48 volt DC to the PSU. They don't even make that.
3. Use a power strip plug that shorts itself while not inserted.
4. Configure the whole disk encryption to timeout regardless of activity.
I must admit to being rather shocked ( ) that it *could* be marketed.Ben said:At least two very easy ones come to my mind. Not only don't you want the
criminals to know, but you don't want hotplug to enhance their product to
accomodate those. I am not convinced that law enforcement is their target
market. If it was, it would be marketed through more confidential channels.
Anyone can order it from their web site, and then use it on your computer
for whatever reason they have.
IBM did studies on this for the army in the early 90s. It turns out
spinning hard drives are not really much more in danger than drives at
rest.
There are lots of older MP3 players that use mini drives and the
army/marines have hardened laptops that they carry around in combat.
The drives are pretty much "off the shelf" items.
Unless I've misunderstood how it works the supplies from the mains and
the UPS would briefly be connected in parallel; that might not be a
good idea if the Voltages are not the same, and how do you ensure that
they're in phase?
IBM lightning drives must be tougher than Seagates (they turn slower
and had a smaller capacity, bigger head surface) but even 63Gs is a
pretty good hit. The test was really whether the drive, as installed
in a machine, would tolerate a lot of rough handling, as was the
original question here. It is safe to say if you were holding that
drive or riding in the vehicle it was mounted to and took a 63G hit it
would be academic to your heirs whether the drive survived.
I moved spinning machines around all the time and never had these
problems so I am sure a fairly careful guy could take one across the
country. I have a regular PC in my car and it has banged around the
trunk a number of times, not even skipping the MP3 that was playing.
Hard drives and PCs in general are a lot tougher than people think.
I imagine a person who is really interested enough in saving this data
will have some kind of ventilated, padded case to carry the system
unit in. Just being in a case tends to dampen shocks.
BTW I did take a look at a lightning drive and the HDA is shock
mounted in the drive housing so that may have something to do with the
rating. It may be apples and oranges compared to the cheap industry
drives we have today.
If the drive is "opened" when they sieze it, why not just copy the
data right there?
In real life guys like the FBI and NSA can crack just about any
encryption with minimal effort. I know a guy who works in that arena
and he has a tool that broke the IBM encryption on my laptop in about
5 minutes.