How Magic Might Finally Fix Your Computer

[Prometheus]

You mean you've been dead so long you've entirly decomposed?

Yes, that's exactly what the words I posted mean. Is there another possible interpretation?

 

[six7s]

Whether or not I'm dead, I'm not sure... but my data is safe... if on display in the local planning office, in an unlit cellar, without stairs, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory, with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard' is safe

 

[shadron]

I forget who it was or how it actually went but from what I do remember from an article in a computer technology magazine back in the 80’s, it went something like this…

Even a computer turned off, sealed in concrete and buried underground, is not secure.

And that was from some NSA source (if I remember correctly).

As an electrical engineer and computer programmer, I really doubt that. Sensors that powerful (powerful enough to read a static disk through the case, let alone whatever air and concrete are specified, is not just magic, its unbelievable. It's hard enough reading them from a sensor floating .1 micron above each separate surface while its spinning. The NSA is capable of some amazing things (I used to have a clearance for technical engineering work with a then-unnamed agency so I'm not coming out of left field altogether) but that is just plain hyperbole. They, too, put on their pants one leg at a time.

 

[geni]

Yes, that's exactly what the words I posted mean. Is there another possible interpretation?

Not really. Ownership of property requires security. A living body requires some level of security. An intact dead body requires security.

 

[Rob Lister]

As an electrical engineer and computer programmer, I really doubt that. Sensors that powerful (powerful enough to read a static disk through the case, let alone whatever air and concrete are specified, is not just magic, its unbelievable. It's hard enough reading them from a sensor floating .1 micron above each separate surface while its spinning. The NSA is capable of some amazing things (I used to have a clearance for technical engineering work with a then-unnamed agency so I'm not coming out of left field altogether) but that is just plain hyperbole. They, too, put on their pants one leg at a time.

Well, don't. You're thinking like an electrical engineer. It ain't about that (high-end complex hacking). It's about the low-end simple ways an electrical engineer wouldn't bother considering.

 

[The Man]

Well, don't. You're thinking like an electrical engineer. It ain't about that (high-end complex hacking). It's about the low-end simple ways an electrical engineer wouldn't bother considering.

Well, as a mechanical engineer, I can certainly see how one might be able clandestinely gain access to the system mentioned and get whatever you want from it or put whatever you want on it. I believe that might have been the sources point that not all security breaches are due to hacking, or high tech methods. Some of the best methods are the low tech ones and may only require gaining some physical access to the system in order to then perhaps gain some electrical access to the system.

 

[ddt]

Some of the best methods are the low tech ones and may only require gaining some physical access to the system in order to then perhaps gain some electrical access to the system.

You touch on a salient point. Whoever has access to the computer room can just yank out the hard drives, take them home and look at their contents. Physical security as in restricting who may enter which room is also part of computer security. And just see how lax people are with this security aspect.

(A couple of years ago, the intercom system in my apartment building was upgraded to also include video. Nice feature. When I leave or enter the building, I don't let other people enter, unless I recognize them as neighbors. Others don't. So why do we need the video in the first place?)

There's one proviso to the above: in recent times, encrypted file systems have become popular. Without having the password/pass phrase, the contents cannot be decrypted in a feasible time. That's a great boon for people who download illegal stuff or are suspected of having otherwise actionable material on their computer. However, for disks that are used by many other people, all these people need somehow the pass phrase and thus we're back at square one.

 

[The Man]

Well, an internet search did turn up this quote, which is most likely the one I was remebering.

Dennis Huges, FBI.
The only secure computer is one that's unplugged, locked in a safe, and buried 20 feet under the ground in a secret location... and I'm not even too sure about that one.

 

[six7s]

The only secure computer is one that's unplugged...

Who cares (primarily) about the hardware?

As data transfer gets faster and easier, security issues increase exponentially

Hands up who does not know someone with an unencrypted USB drive

 

[arthwollipot]

Who cares (primarily) about the hardware?

As data transfer gets faster and easier, security issues increase exponentially

Hands up who does not know someone with an unencrypted USB drive

I have an unencrypted USB drive. I assume that anything that I put on it will be read by other people. Honestly, outside of a work environment I have very little on my computer that I would object to other people reading. Come to think of it, I don't think I've even used a credit card on my current computer.

There is a certain amount of security in obscurity. Not much, but sufficient for most people's purposes.

 

[PixyMisa]

We might even have gotten colours, up to 8 different ones to play with, if we were lucky enough get one o' them new-fangled ANSI terminals, instead of our old VT100s. 'Course, there was X, with all the nifty graphics, if you were a guru enough to make it work and courd afford the hardware to run it. And even that didn't come with all those fancy menu bars and toolbars you whiny kids can't do without. We had to page through everything by hand, through using non-intuitive keyboard/mouse combinations, and we liked it that way!

We still like it that way.