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Software Dead Man's Switch 231

Posted by timothy from the take-short-vacations dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "DaisyMan over on ArsWare has come up with a software based Dead Man's Switch that will, if you don't 'check in' every so often, post a message (presumably about your demise, but whatever you wish) to various message boards, send email (maybe that incriminating evidence?) to your friends, and encrypt specified files on your computer so that 'they' can't have them. Paranoia? Yeah, but they really _are_ watching you ..." Update: 06/22 12:57 GMT by T : The idea isn't new, but recently sparked a New York Times article.
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Software Dead Man's Switch More

Software Dead Man's Switch

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  • CRON? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by vbrtrmn ( 62760 )
    If you are really paranoid, couldn't you just run a cron job every few days, that if you don't stop would do this? You could probably just have it wipe your drive. Of course if you forgot, you'd be SOL.
    • Of course if you forgot, you'd be SOL.

      Ahh but thats what backups are f.........hmmmmm.
    • If you are really paranoid, couldn't you just run a cron job If you are really paranoid, couldn't you just run a cron job every few days, that if you don't stop would do this?

      Sure, a short shell script + cron would do the trick, but from the link, the sw seems to be pointed at M$ users...
    • This tool provides one better, though some of your data you may wish to just disappear. With this tool you can encrypt files, I can think of many cases where you might wish some points of data to outlive you.

      With the encryption routine then you can include a copy of the decryption program and the password sealed in your Will and then you can Will that stuff to whomever may need the data (business partners, spouses, children, channel 9 News, etc.)

      Some of us have data that is not just porn.
  • ...my net access goes down?

    I'm on KPNQwest BTW

    (not really)

  • Flaw? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Deanasc ( 201050 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @07:57AM (#3748767) Homepage Journal
    OK wouldn't this be a moot point if my enemies get my computer offline before the switch is thrown. A better way would be for the software to run off something like FIDOnet with no single weakpoint. Just my 2 cents.

    • It depends on how you set it up and whether or not 'they' know you've got such a system.

      Under Linux you'd presumably use Anacron to schedule the task, so if the computer is powered on intact the task will trigger.

      If 'they' are anticipating a self destruct mechanism then, yeah, 'they' can get around it. But I think even the wariest NSA spook will probably at least try to turn the machine on before deciding to disassemble it. As soon as that happens you're safe.

      • Uhm... NO.

        If you turn a machine on (or off.) you change the state of a machine, and thusly, destroy potential evidence.

        If they're dropping into your place secretly to install a 'bug' program or hardware piece, then they might turn it on or off..

        But, if they just want your data they won't even use any of your hardware to get it, but will just remove your drive and then clone your drive.

        Even the local police know that one, I doubt the NSA would be so stupid.
      • But I think even the wariest NSA spook will probably at least try to turn the machine on before deciding to disassemble it. As soon as that happens you're safe.

        hmm, well on my machines the'll probably simply attach a SCSI cable from their SpookPad(TM) laptops to the back of my SCSI adapter, and power on the just the disks.

        You can't hide that much data in the CMOS, you know.
      • Wrong. IANAWNS, but I would never EVER turn on a machine on with evidence on it. Instead I would yank it's hard drives and put them into a system I know is safe. The only way I know of which could cause a lot of confusion and inconvenience would be to modify the firmware of the hard drive itself to expect an authentication handshake before executing read commands properly, and if it doesn't get a handshake just give out junk and silently start corrupting data on the media. Of course, the self-destruct should not be allowed to be interrupted once its in self-destruct mode and authentication data such as keys should be in part stored on a secure smart card and in part in the users head. Oh and while we're at it modifying that firmware, it would also make sense to encrypt the data on the medium using a key derived from the authentication data. That way, even if they're smart enough to hookup the drive's medium to another "clean" controller, they're still fscked.

    • You have to be DEAD before it does anything for you.
      And when you'r DEAD you'r not capable of giving a shit anymore. :)
      • You have to be DEAD before it does anything for you. And when you'r (sic) DEAD you'r (sic) not capable of giving a shit anymore. :)

        No, no, that's the beauty of it! It works if they've captured you, too!

        Just imagining situations where this feature would be useful is kinda fun, in a stupid sort of way...

  • What if you forget to check in? Does the "countdown" start? Will the world end?

    This is similar to the argument about usenet (message boards) vs. mailing lists. With mailing lists, if you forget about a low traffic list, you are reminded when mail comes in. With a message board, you have to remember to check in.

    I find the "check in" model flawed because we (humans) are flawed.
    • Well this is getting a little offtopic, but if you have a usenet reader that acts more like a mail client (or is also a mail client), then basically all the usenet groups you are subscribed to look like a bunch of pre-sorted mailboxes.
    • The model is more than flawed...

      Just imagine your "existence" depending on the date of your last Slashdot posting...

      • Just imagine your "existence" depending on the date of your last Slashdot posting...

        You mean it doesn't? Crap, I didn't have to check /. every day?
  • I had something similar for my BBS. It was a DOS TSR that had a countdown and unless I typed in two phrases before it ran out it would zero-out the drive. Well, software sucks, and software on DOS doubly so -- can you say boom!?!?!

  • Safe House (Score:3, Interesting)

    by smackdotcom ( 136408 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:01AM (#3748773)
    This sounds markedly similar to the idea employed in the underrated TV-movie Safe House [imdb.com], where Patrick Stewart's character, a retired spook, employs a software failsafe based on his ability to recreate a Japanese alphabet character. If he is unable to complete this task every day by a certain time, incriminating information about his black ops "friends" would automatically be sent to every major news organization on the planet. It could be very handy if you think someone is out to get you...
    • That would require the sensitive information to be automatically accessible from a network connected (in some form) computer. Sure, you could have it dial in, and keep the modem out of auto-answer mode, but I seriously doubt an ex-spook would make the mistake of storing sensitive information in a network accessible computer.
      • It's not that difficult to configure a network to be one-way only.
      • So your sensitive data is either on this machine, or pointed to by this machine. The bad guys watch you for long enough to figure out the likely locations of your dead man switches, and then follow them to your sensitive data.

        Your car breaks down stranding you for a week while you're on your Belize holiday, and the first thing you do when you get to an internet cafe is to post a content free message to alt.cypherpunks. Which one of your associates reads alt.cypherpunks religiously, or what servers have you had access to? As long as you never screw up, you should be safe, but you could be defeated by simple traffic analysis.

        I hope you didn't entrust that blackmail evidence to someone you love.
        • Then why have all your eggs in one basket? I personally have 6 machines at home only one contains any sensative data which would be mildly annoying if it fell into hte wrong hands.. However I have around 15 computers spread around the internet (2 different countries 10 different locations) that are still mine by some over spending fluke of .com era. Now I access eac h of these maybe once a month and onlly with https ... I use https to accesss a dozen minor sites a day from exchange web access to secure forums to a lot of other stuff. Its hard to find all of those boxs if I did need to use them myself let alone if someone needed to track them all down. not that I have any sensative data on them any way. + My sensative data is mostly porrly written love notes, drafts of legal documents and papers that I wrote in 6th grade. More embaresssing then anything else

  • Question... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rant-mode-on ( 512772 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:01AM (#3748774) Homepage
    The question is, can I set up a cron job to save me being pestered by it all the time?

    • Re:Question... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by clary ( 141424 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:58AM (#3748857)
      Hehe.

      Actually, maybe the poster was serious??? I could imagine putting the cron job on one of your main servers or workstations, easily found by "THEM." The dead-man's switch would be on some less obvious machine, in another location. When "THEY" rush in, unplug, and cart off all your machines, "THEY" unknowingly turn off the cron job.

      For the most delicious irony, the most wily of you might find some way to host the dead-man's switch on one of "THEIR" machines!

  • Everything old is new again. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Kids, this ain't new.

    In corporate IT circles, this trick has been used for -years- by disgruntled employees.

    The theory goes that you have a bomb set to go off once a day (the bomb does something nefarious -- wipes the disks clean, alters some code to ensure incorrect results, etc..)

    The disgruntled employee must check in to defuse the bomb once a week.

    If he doesn't (ie, if he got canned....) A week later, the business is going to grapple with an unfortunate surprise.

    Totally underhanded, but not at all uncommon.
    • The disgruntled employee must check in to defuse the bomb once a week.


      If he doesn't (ie, if he got canned....) A week later, the business is going to grapple with an unfortunate surprise.

      Totally underhanded, but not at all uncommon.

      That is underhanded, and I would think could get you into a lot of trouble.

      I typically put scripts for things like log rotation & email alerts in my home directory and have them spawned by cron jobs. Or re-spawning at jobs.

      The idea is a clever admin who is paying attention will migrate my stuff over and all is well. But the typical admin will just nuke my account.. Nothing like turning off nightly log compression on a few hundred websites to make someone feel the heat.
  • I've always wanted a program which sends email to my friends that I'm missing and they should call the police when I just went on holidays.
    Ha, but it encrypts all my pr0n.
  • Add some form of wireless heartbeat sensor, and you'd be set. Plus some of these villian toys [slashdot.org], and the superheros/goodguys can't win!

  • login script (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xpurple ( 1227 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:06AM (#3748780) Homepage Journal
    I've got my laptop set to format the drive (yes | rm -r /) if I don't login every so often. Currently it's set at two weeks (I don't reboot much). I don't see this causing any issues, and it makes me feel better.

    So far so good :)

    Note that this gets around the annoying having to do something special to make it work. I'd login anyway :)
    • I don't see the problem with rm -rf / , why don't you use that? It's hardly a huge point - just interested...
    • your Laptop? You said you don't reboot often.. do you also not take it out of your house? a good security measure to keep retention or not lose your laptop to theft is... should it get stolen... and someone does something stupid like use it to log onto the net.. that the features you normally use (instant messaging, etc.) would make a tracable record for you to find it's location of use...

      Are you really that concerned about someone getting their hands on your 'sensitive data' without your password or even most likely, a knowledge of unix-like systems? :P Geesh, why don't you just encrypt it?

      If you format the drive... you make it nice and easy for any thief/fence to simply put a new OS back on it and pass it along clean... I mean you REALLY don't want someone putting MS Windows on your laptop, now DO YOU? Gotta prevent THAT! :P
    • I like that idea but would the data still be recoverable with some utility? Mabey it would make sense to rm -rf /home or whereever your data is, calculate the amount of free disk space and do a mkfile of that size!

    • I've got my laptop set to format the drive (yes | rm -r /) if I don't login every so often.

      For the truly paranoid, that's not good enough. You really ought to make sure that random data gets written all over the drive at least, and you also risk the chance that someone may get to your data before it's wiped.

      I recommend encrypting everything. The easiest way is to use an encrypting file system (I use Cryptfs [columbia.edu]) . Then, you just have to arrange for your machine to forget the password and all of your data is inaccessible, even to forensics (well, unless they can guess your passphrase, so use a good, long, complex one, or unless they can break the cipher, which is unlikely at best if you use a good implementation of a respected, modern algorithm).

      I hacked the screen lock (which can be engaged automatically when the screensaver comes on) to execute "echo wrongpassword | fist_setkey /mnt/cryptfs", which changes the key being used to access my encrypted data, making it all inaccessible (and invisible to the casual attacker).

      When I unlock the screen, I have to enter both my login password and my cryptfs passphrase.

      So, after 30 minutes of inactivity, or after a reboot, all of my data is inaccessible. The most significant weakness is the possibility that my passphrase might get written to the swapfile. I've been meaning to look into that but haven't gotten around to it.

  • Stephen King already has a copy!
  • Aaaah, yes...the one thing VillainSupply.com didn't have. It is time. MUAHAHA!. MUAHAHAHAHA!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

  • How do you test it? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by falser ( 11170 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:10AM (#3748789) Homepage
    Like, do I have to do a "trial death", spewing out messages all over the internet like "Hey I'm dead, blah, blah, oh by the way I'm just testing my death switch, you may disregard this message". I think after testing it out a couple of times nobody's really going care when you really do die to take notice.

    Certainly the chances of an accidental death mode going off are high. So I think there should be different "death alert levels". If you don't sign in after a month, it starts sending out alert messages like "Hey I haven't been around for a while and I might be dead, please check whether or not I'm dead for me, Thanks bud!".

    There should also be instructions given in an email to your friends/family so that they too can stop the death switch for you in dire or unusual situations (coma, kidnapping, laziness). And only then if another couple days pass it goes into full blown death mode.

  • Memories.... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by peterdaly ( 123554 )
    Reminds me of my last job when we fired someone from finance. I had to go confescate his PC, and every "storage medium" I could find from his office while he was in HR. Not quite the same, but he went on the "death march" and his machine just "vanished" from his office.

    -Pete

  • Old DOS days (Score:4, Interesting)

    by brejc8 ( 223089 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:21AM (#3748802) Homepage Journal
    I had a system just like this to protect the computer if it was stolen or I died.
    If someone steals it and doesn't run a BBS program at least once a day then he system would encrypt most files and ring me.
    Once I have the number of the person who stole my computer I would be able to get them.
    The cool thing is that it run from boot block just like a virus so you would need to fully format the disk to get rid of it.

  • supposedly dead (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dan Aloni ( 584167 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:21AM (#3748803) Homepage
    I really don't like the idea that by mistake, my relatives, friends, or colleagues on the Internet will get this kind of E-Mail by mistake:

    "This is an automated message. If you read this, I am probably dead. My will is to be burried along with my hard drive, and send the rest of my computer hardware as donation to Linus Torvalds."

    On the first time they get it, they may get paniced, and set up a funeral for me while I am away.

    On the second time, I'd really drop dead and they'll laugh and ignore while I rot on my keyboard for months.

  • I already saw a few posts saying things like: "it's useless, it easy to get around etc etc".
    We all know you can get around this program. I didn't try installing it, but I'm sure it isn't even hard to prevent it from launching.
    However, the idea isn't bad. I'm sure this program will get other people to write similar things, and maybe someone will create a program that is really hard to get around.

    In any case, I think that if you really have data you want to protect, you should probably have a lot of protection. This one should only be one amongst many. If used like this, I think this program is great.
  • This is a repost.
    It was on a few weeks ago.
  • The good news: You aren't suffering from paranoia
    The bad news: They really are out to get you.

  • necessary services (Score:5, Funny)

    by dboyles ( 65512 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:49AM (#3748838) Homepage
    This reminds me of something that was on The Man Show [comedycentral.com] a few years ago. In the event of an untimely death, a (made-up) company could be enlisted to "correct" some things for you. The team came in and replaced items such as Playboy centerfolds, a bong, porn videos, and a - let's just call it a "sexual device" - with pictures of your family, Bibles, and other such things.

    They showed a "with and without" sequence, where one's parents came to their dead son's apartment to discover the two different scenarios. It was pretty funny, and encouraged me to say to my roommate, "You know that bottom drawer of my dresser? If I die, burn everything in it."
    • Reminds me of the concept of "Porn Buddies" mentioned in the BBC series "Coupling." Basically you and a best mate exchange keys so that they can rush round and hide your porn in the case of your sudden death.

      Good series. Oooh, look, you can buy it on DVD [amazon.co.uk].

      • ...this sounds like your next BBC-generated hit. Remember AbFab? This sounds like it could be the masculine equivalent. Get cracking, guys!

        Damn, I HATE Region coding and multiple video standards!

        • I'm ashamed to admit, I was actually watching Entertainment Tonight this week. In any case, they report that NBC actually bought the series you refer to. They say it could be a "replacement" for Friends, even though later in the report they report that the series would air later in the evening than Friends currently airs. They report it would, of course, be filmed with an American cast for US audiences.

      • A fantastic series .. I'm just waiting for the release of season two.

        (I particularly liked the Hebrew episode)

  • Oopsie. I forgot to send my lost password of the Norwegian database [slashdot.org] to my boss.

  • Safe Deposit Box (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SparkyTWP ( 556246 ) <`phatcoq' `at' `insightbb.com'> on Saturday June 22, 2002 @08:56AM (#3748852) Homepage
    I think I'd rather just get a safe deposit box and make instructions to have it opened after my death. Inside would be instructions for emails, postings, etc...

    Then you know you wouldn't have to worry about accidentally tripping the program if you went on vacation.

    You'd still need an encryption program for files though if you don't trust anyone with that, but that's not a big deal.

    Accidentally encrypting data is no big deal, accidentally sending off final emails with very personal messages is a whole other story.
    • I think I'd rather just get a safe deposit box and make instructions to have it opened after my death.

      This is actually slightly trickier than that. Just a couple of weeks ago, my brother and I met with my parents and their lawyer to discuss their will. The lawyer just explicitly told us not to keep their will in their safe deposit box, since banks automatically lock them when they find out someone died. And banks have people whose job it is to scan obits. I forgot the details, but the lawyer said there is a way to get let into the box, but it will be delayed.

      In other words, by the time your trusted people get to your safe deposit box, the untrusted people could have had their way with your computer, etc.

  • I've had this idea before, because I live alone, and if I died at home it could be weeks before anyone noticed.

    The problem is that I'm also absent-minded.
  • It's not parnoia if they are -realy- out to get you.My "dead man's switch" would have a lot of rm ~.porn commands to run. And how can that thing erase my bookmarks to barnwyardsex.com? :)

    A program like this could be used to help find stolen computers. If you dont execute the program and type in the pasword every week or so the prog tries to dial-up and send an email with the current ip. (well that would only work with machines not setup to start with a login prompt anyway.)
  • A book called The Trigger [amazon.com] goes into a fairly in depth subplot about a man arranging his own death/arrest program. The book itself is a little bit weak, but kind of a fun read.
  • 0 0 15 * * rm /yourself || /root/imdead.sh

    just remember to # touch /yourself before the 15th of every month and you'll be okay...

  • This reminds me... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...of how Timbuktu (a VNC commercial clone) helped some girl and her brother find back her stolen iMac: the thief had not formatted the HD, and was unsing it to surf the net.
    Much AppleScript was involved, to delete everything personal from the HD then connect to a particular site so the IP could be traced. Quite epic ;-)

    So I think it's just much better to have some remote control mean on your computer (as long as it is secure), as an aside to completely locking your machine with passwords.

  • Time, oh Time (Score:2, Interesting)

    by standards ( 461431 )
    Yet another great reason for secure network time.

  • On a similar note... Fire Kits (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Xiver ( 13712 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @09:36AM (#3748946)
    I have set up a fire kit that runs as an NT service on my laptop and our file server. In the even that my user ID is removed from the Domain my computer and the server will zip and FTP my personal files to me and delete my personal email.

    I've considered adding options to wipe out my HD and user directories, but thought I might be liable if project data was lost.

  • A more effective one (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fencepost ( 107992 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @09:38AM (#3748948) Journal
    Though their website is sappier than I would've believed possible, "Loving Pup" [timelessmail.com] has a service along these lines for folks in the US. They aren't looking for notifications, they get the death notifications (by SSN) from the US government; when your SSN is listed they send the email messages that you'd set up in advance. Of course, they also charge an annual fee ranging from $12-24.

    If nothing else, it's certainly safer in terms of vacations.

  • Revelation Day (Score:3, Funny)

    by wytcld ( 179112 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @09:48AM (#3748974) Homepage
    How about we offer really slick freeware (or even better, 'shareware' that can easily not be paid for so folks think its of greater value) secretly set to go off on the Day of Reckoning?

    Prior to that civilization-improving point of revelation let's also have a backdoor so we can get the inside scoop on the really nasty revelations. Free the truth!
    ___

  • Wouldn't an encrypted file system be a tad more convienent? Everything is 'secure' even if They(tm) scan your harddrive w/o booting from it.

    As others have stated, the email features can be enabled via a cronjob.

  • A much easier, less risky, more effective solution (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22, 2002 @09:52AM (#3748984)
    Have someone you trust, like your wife, your sister or, if you're alone on the world, a lawyer flip on the 'switch' when you're dead.

    There must be someone you can trust more then your ability to check in every now and then.

    And if there isn't, I truly pitty you, but you can hire a lawyer to do it.
    And no there is no conspiracy between the lawyers and the government.
  • Given the difficulty I have in remembering to keep my hotmail accounts alive, I'd probably not have a much better time remembering to tell the dead man switch that I wasn't dead.

    I can see the distressed look on my Mom's face already when she recieves a copy of my doomsday manifesto^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hlast will and testiment!

  • I was drinking last night so don't expect it to be bug-free although it seems to work. It is left as an exercise to the reader to create the "goneforever" script that decides what to do in the event of your sudden demise (or inability to login to your computer for 15 days). Cron as appropriate. There is no special action, just login.

    #!/bin/bash
    # Dead man script. Warning, do not take this seriously or use for anything important!
    deadman="$HOME/bin/goneforever"
    dontw orry="$HOME/.gonefishing"
    ranonce="$deadman.ran"
    period='15 days ago'
    lastlogin=`last -1 $USER | cut -c40-55`
    if [ `date -d "$lastlogin" +%s` -lt `date -d "$period" +%s` \
    -a ! -f $dontworry -a ! -f $ranonce ]; then
    $deadman
    touch $ranonce
    exit 0
    fi
    exit 1
    # exits "false" normally, so you can read val, e.g. ./deadman && echo DEAD!

    Cheers,
    Martin

  • Good in theory, Bad in practice (Score:5, Informative)

    by 1g$man ( 221286 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @10:21AM (#3749055)
    IIRC there were so many false alarms on the ArsTechnica forums from this thing that the moderators will lock any Deadman Switch posts on sight.

    It's an interesting idea, but it's way too easy to forget it's running, go on vacation, and then come back and find your hard disk wiped. Not to mention a forum filled with ArsTechnica loungers weeping over your passing, only to be bitter to find out you've tricked them...

  • big deal (Score:1)

    by erc ( 38443 )
    And why is this such a big deal? A friend and I did this 10 years ago - if we didn't log into our Linux boxes for 7 days, it would automatically send out email to everyone we knew, asking us to log in. After 14 days, it would automatically email our digital wills out to affected parties.

    This, of course, assumes someone doesn't come along and unplug your machine shortly after you die, but if it's on a dedicated or shared box that wouldn't be a problem.
  • "...and encrypt specified files on your computer so that 'they' can't have them..."

    You see, the problem with encryption is that it can be broken. Also, your PC can be taken away, before the program executes. Your HD can be removed, files restored.

    There is only one good solution to this: Place a dozen or more of dynamite sticks inside your case (don't stint), and make sure not to be seen by your colleagues from your company. Place battery inside and connect it with a fuse through some digital "count down" timer. Place "ON" switch on the box door, and wire it to the circuit, so nobody can open your PC without "surprise". You are almost done. The last thing is to connect the clock to the reset switch on the box, and disconnect it from the system (By the way, you don't need reset button on the Linux machine. It newer hangs). You will be required to press the reset button minimum once a week, and few second after every reboot to prevent the box from going OFF. Have fun.

    • There is only one good solution to this: Place a dozen or more of dynamite sticks inside your case (don't stint), and make sure not to be seen by your colleagues from your company.... Have fun.

      Damn. You live in Montana, don't you? :)

  • rooted. If I didn't check in once in a while, the system would assume my unix box was rooted and take action to lock down the system.
  • There are people in the world who might actually have a use for this.

    Rather than "hello, I am dead", send a message like "would you please call and check on me".

    Probably simpler, would be just checking the mailbox, if email hasn't been accessed, then there is a problem, given that most people that are alive, check their mail semi-regularly.

    • Rather than "hello, I am dead", send a message like "would you please call and check on me".

      This is even worse! If the message gets falsely sent, you end up having to talk to old, sickly people!

      ObHomer: Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

  • Dead? Or just laid off? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by standards ( 461431 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @12:01PM (#3749319)
    In my previous job for a large corporation, there was a programmer who decided that it would be a good idea to install such a switch. In the event he didn't update a particular file at least once within 30 days, a job would start slowly corrupting an accounts receivable database.

    Unfortuantely for him, he was severely injured in a car accident and was incapacitated for several months.

    Now that he is out of the hospital, he's in jail.

    Was it his fault? You bet. But the company was also severely repremanded for having poor controls on sensitive computing systems.
    • If you feel a need to screw your coworkers like this if you quit/get fired/whatever, you're at the wrong company. Quit now before you do something stupid and vindictive that's likely to mess up your life, because if you feel like that now even if things improve you'll never really be happy there.

      If you can't grasp that, grasp that most companies that inspire this sort of feeling are the large impersonal ones that are likely to survive, and that eventually they may figure out what you did at which point you're screwed for the rest of your life and they're minorly inconvenienced. Not worth it.


  • What you do is this.

    Get an old busted hard drive.
    Open it up.
    Gut it.
    Pack it full of thermite.
    Rig up an electronic ignition that can ignite the thermite.. you'll probably have to stage it.. thermite has a high ignition temperature.(standard electric match -> some chemical that's easy to light but burns really hot -> thermite).
    Rig it up a watchdog timer inside the drive too.

    Now have a driver that asks for a password on boot and kicks the dog for you.

    If it fails.. the dog ignites the thermite and turns your computer into a pile of molten slag.
    • Run a bunch of current through a thin strip of magnesium, that should do nicely to ignite the thermite.

  • Who could use this in RL? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @12:20PM (#3749388)
    Who, really, has secrets that are keeping them alive or incriminating evidence that just might get them arrested, imprisoned, or killed. To most people, this kind of utility is a joke. To a few people, however, this is a godsend...

    Like, for instance, RAWA. These are the women who ran an underground women's rights movement in Afghanistan while the Taliban were in control. You may have seen their website with its grotesque pictures. They lived and worked in secrecy, in constant fear of being imprisoned or killed by the Taliban. Wouldn't a dead-man's(or -woman's) switch be just the thing to send off a 'Farewell. This is the evidence of my capture at the hands of the Taliban' message?

    It's not just them, either. Dissidents in China could also use a utility like this... especially all those guys who just got their internet cafes shut down. Suppose the 2600 guys got raided by the MPAA^H^H^H^HFBI and were all put in prison. I imagine that Emanuel Goldstien has some juicy information he'd like to share in the event of his capture or death.

    The Gotti family has been in the news a lot lately. Suppose that you were a mob informant and had information on them that was all that was standing between you and 'Sleeping with the Sopranos after next season'. A dead-man's switch would go a long way to allowing you to release that last little bit of information, even if the mafia got to you first.

  • What this is is a software watchdog timer [google.ca]. It's available in the Linux kernel, and I'm sure that it would take minimal work to have it execute arbitrary code instead of resetting the box.

    Other than that, what's new about this?

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday June 22, 2002 @01:46PM (#3749669)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Make sure it mails out the encryption key to your
    Norwegian history database [slashdot.org]!

  • for best effect, go nuclear (Score:3, Funny)

    by danny ( 2658 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @01:28AM (#3751720) Homepage
    Obtain a surplus Russian nuclear warhead and wire your dead man switch to that... That's what one of the characters in Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash [dannyreviews.com] does, anyway - the result is that he gets looked after very carefully by local law enforcement.

    There's a great bit of dialogue at one point that goes something like "You can't attack him, he's a sovereign nation!" "So, I'll declare war on him first." If anyone has a copy handy maybe they can transcribe it.

    Danny.

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