There was a similar sort of tool that let you take admin access on Netware machines if you had physical access, and I found it invaluable when taking over sysadmin duties from an idiot who'd left in disgrace.
Heh. Kind of like a guy I know who was talking about how his machine was totally unhackable because there were giant random passwords to turn it on and get into Windows, there were no services running that listened to the outside AND he was behind a super-cool firewall thing.
Screwdriver + HDD + my machine + data not actually encrypted = mine, all mine, bwahahahahahahaha. I didn't even have to actually do it, just point out that he was running XP Home.
Or the Linux geeks who leave the reset button handy, so you can just boot up into single user mode and change the root password.
I'd kinda like this Mac tool, even if I only know one guy who owns a macbook.
I own a Macbook, and I would like to assure you that my physical security measures include a large, hairy angry primate with a blunt instrument. Best security money can't buy, that.
"Didn't they know that the only unhackable computer is one that's running a secure operating system, welded inside a steel safe, buried under a ton of concrete at the bottom of a coal mine guarded by the SAS and a couple of armoured divisions, and switched off? What did they think they were doing?"
i wasnt thinking encription specificaly. when a drive is read with an electron microscope its reading deformations in the magnetic material that then has to get turned into data do decryted from physical info to data info.
i was thinking more of boot level protection that says, "if you acess this drive with out the correct hardware signal it auto formats." simaler to that "secret partition" software you can get for laptops that starts phoneing home if your laptop is stolen.
Naturally, there is a way to defeat this "lockpick" - disable USB media automount, and/or close your keychain. Security-minded Macgeeks will have done either/or.
And, if they're law enforcement types, all they need is a warrant.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 08:41 pm (UTC)There was a similar sort of tool that let you take admin access on Netware machines if you had physical access, and I found it invaluable when taking over sysadmin duties from an idiot who'd left in disgrace.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 09:18 pm (UTC)Screwdriver + HDD + my machine + data not actually encrypted = mine, all mine, bwahahahahahahaha. I didn't even have to actually do it, just point out that he was running XP Home.
Or the Linux geeks who leave the reset button handy, so you can just boot up into single user mode and change the root password.
I'd kinda like this Mac tool, even if I only know one guy who owns a macbook.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 09:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 03:50 am (UTC)From "The Concrete Jungle", by Charles Stross.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 08:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 09:28 pm (UTC)doesnt matter what you put in the way, you can (for a reduculas cost) have the drive platters read by an electron microscope and decypered from there.
though why do i have a feeling even though its "FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ONLY" that it will be easier to get than a gun...
come on, the term "licenced investigator" in the states is pretyy dubious.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 09:29 pm (UTC)This is why there is such a thing as good encryption.
Of course, good encryption is only as good as the key, and the key is only as good as the means used to protect the key, but the principle is sound.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 09:36 pm (UTC)i was thinking more of boot level protection that says, "if you acess this drive with out the correct hardware signal it auto formats." simaler to that "secret partition" software you can get for laptops that starts phoneing home if your laptop is stolen.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 10:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 02:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-03 10:09 pm (UTC)That is all.
- James -
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 09:17 am (UTC)So what's new?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 12:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 02:39 pm (UTC)And, if they're law enforcement types, all they need is a warrant.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 03:01 pm (UTC)Now all I need to do is get a MD5 or sha1 fingerprint of that application.
Again: A way to rip off law enforcement.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-04 03:16 pm (UTC)*does so*