On Monday, June 02, 2014 07:28:53 AM Rich Freeman wrote: > On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 6:56 AM, Neil Bothwick <n...@digimed.co.uk> wrote: > > On Mon, 02 Jun 2014 05:27:44 -0500, Dale wrote: > >> The second option does sound what I am looking for. Basically, if I log > >> out but leave my computer on, leave home, some crook/NSA type breaks in > >> and tries to access something or steals my whole puter, they would just > >> get garbage for data. That seems to fit the second option best. > > > > If they steal your computer they will have to power it off, unless you > > are kind enough to leave them a large enough UPS to steal along with it, > > so any encryption will be equally effective. > > If you're worried about casual thieves then just about any kind of > properly-implemented encryption will stop them. > > If you're worried about a government official specifically tasked with > retrieving your computer, my understanding is that it is SOP these > days to retrieve your computer without powering it off for just this > reason. They won't use your UPS to do it. Typically they remove the > plug just far enough to expose the prongs, slide in a connector that > connects it to a UPS, and then they pull it out the rest of the way > now powered by the UPS. > > See something like: > http://www.cru-inc.com/products/wiebetech/hotplug_field_kit/
Hmm... Those are nice, but can be easily built yourself with an off-the-shelf UPS. > Presumably somebody who is determined will also have the means to > retrieve the contents of RAM once they seize your computer. Besides > directlly accessing the memory bus I think most motherboards are not > designed to be secure against attacks from PCI/firewire/etc. Hmm... add something to auto-shutdown the computer when a hotplug event occurs on any of the internal ports and remove support for unused ports from the kernel. I wonder how they'd keep a computer from initiating a shutdown procedure or causing a kernel panic when it looses (wireless) connection to another device that is unlikely to be moved when powered up? -- Joost
